Spire
by dakeyras
Summary: Naruto's angry, Sasuke's sad, Kakashi's an alcoholic, and Sakura is starting to not give a shit anymore. This wasn't what they'd expected from Ninja life, but as Konoha's enemies gather, there's no time for regrets. A strong Team Seven AU with a mystery time-traveller.
1. Chapter 1

_She woke up and quickly glanced around the room. A smile flitted across her face at her success, but it was quiet satisfaction rather than triumph. And then she was off – there was much to be done, and precious little time._

 _She padded to the window on silent feet, slipping out into the night. There was no sign of her passing. Sticking to the shadows, she soon reached the first target. It was too easy. The shopkeeper would never find out who had stolen the plain scrolls, brushes and ink._

 _Hiding in the canopy of a particularly large tree, she wrote with swift and precise motions. After an hour and a half, it was time to move on. The messages were distributed in the correct places, where they'd be found at the right times. She_ knew _it would be so._

 _A strange design was inscribed on the underside of a rock in a rarely used training ground. During a solo exercise routine, a freshly graduated chunin would stumble across it and be inspired to develop a powerful new technique._

 _A genin's letterbox now held a life-changing scroll. Rather than mediocrity, they'd reach greatness._

 _In a long-forgotten hiding spot, there was now a manual on some rather unpleasant techniques, but it would be months before they were found and years before they were used._

 _She snapped back to attention, annoyed at the time lost by reminiscing. A single pebble cast from the top of a mountain could become an avalanche, and she'd just toppled a pile of boulders._

 _The most important parts would need to be guided by a firmer hand, though. A long chain of handseals was required for the next step, and she gasped as she felt her – their – mind reshape, memories carefully transplanted._

 _Her breathing was slightly strained now, and she hurried back to where she'd started, still keeping out of sight. At last she was home, and she vaulted through the window without touching the sides of the frame. She pulled herself under the covers and finally relaxed, her technique fading._

 _She woke up, dazed and disoriented._

-O-

Naruto Uzumaki woke up in the dark of pre-dawn, full of energy and motivation. His alarm hadn't gone off yet, but he leapt out of bed and got ready at breakneck speed anyway. He was excited for the graduation exam tomorrow – and this time he'd pass for sure! – and wanted to get some practice in beforehand.

As he rushed around his small apartment, eating with one hand while trying (and failing) to get dressed with the other, he was already thinking about teams. The small sheaf of notes he'd found outside his doorstep yesterday morning had had some really useful information on it, and the pages were scattered across his kitchen table right now, along with several dirty dishes and a single sock.

The few people who knew Naruto well would have been surprised at his focus. He'd never lacked in drive; he'd always had big dreams and intended to reach them. There was always something more interesting to try than just practising with kunai or punching training logs. Apart from sparring at the Academy and his pranks, most tasks had a lot of boring parts that he ended up avoiding.

Nevertheless, off he went to a little-used corner of a training field. He hadn't had a specific plan in mind, but he decided that some shuriken and kunai throwing could help him pass his graduation exam. He'd finally beat Sasuke at something, and get some well-deserved recognition at last.

The last few times he'd practised his throwing in his free time, he'd given up after a few embarrassing misses. The rote muscle memorisation that the training tried to produce meant that his mind was free to be distracted by all sorts of wonderful ideas as to what else he could be doing, and invariably he'd find half a dozen that sounded better than more failure, especially where everyone could see his mistakes. Half of his best pranks had come from interrupted training.

But not today. Today, Naruto didn't care about missing the target as long as he could correct his throws afterwards. After setting up his equipment and taking off his goggles, he threw the dozen kunai he'd brought at the targets. He grimaced as his first attempt went mostly wide, only hitting the target five times and missing the log completely once. The dozen shuriken that followed were slightly more accurate, but overall he barely reached the passing grade for the exam he'd be taking _in just over a day's time_. With that thought in mind, Naruto gathered the knives up again, easily pulling them out of the shallow cuts they'd made. He stepped back to his spot and threw again. And again. And again. Until his hands were covered in tiny nicks from where he'd handled the sharp shuriken, the ground in front of the target logs was littered with small pieces of wood and bark, and the sun was well above the horizon.

Naruto set off for the Academy. He was late again, but this time, he would be stumbling through the door right after class started for a different reason than usual.

He waved at Iruka with a cheeky wink, ignored his classmates' complaints at his being late for the fourth day in a row, and sat in the nearest open seat. He had a wide smile on his face.

-O-

Sasuke Uchiha turned the plain red comb over in his hands. It had belonged to his mother once. Now it was his, just like everything else she'd owned. He'd thought it lost until that morning when he'd spotted it just lying on the attic floor. He remembered her running it through his hair when he was small.

"Sasuke, your turn to practice!" Iruka called, interrupting Sasuke's daydreams. He quickly slipped the comb back into his pocket. This morning the class was revising the Transformation technique thanks to Naruto clowning around again.

Sasuke stood up and walked to the front of the classroom. Most of the other students talked amongst themselves or otherwise failed to pay attention as they waited, but he knew that at least half a dozen were carefully watching. The pressure to perform felt natural after so long. Then again, it couldn't compare to a time when he'd been under _real_ pressure, with a constant example of where he needed to be stronger, faster, and all-around better at his side. But thinking of that man was _not constructive_ , Sasuke angrily reminded himself. He turned his attention back to Iruka.

Concentrating for a moment, Sasuke expelled a thin layer of chakra from his skin, using a single handseal as a focus. The soft puff of chakra-based smoke around him dulled the sounds of the rest of the room for a fraction of a second. He thought of how he wanted to change his appearance, then warped the layer of chakra that was hidden in the smoke, alterations propagating at the speed of thought. He let it solidify once it held an image of Iruka. Sasuke was mildly pleased to notice that there was less smoke from wasted chakra than the last time he'd used the transformation technique, but the difference was small enough that nobody else would notice it.

As the smoke cleared, he saw his reflection in the mirror at the front of the room. Iruka looked back, smirking slightly at how close to perfect the transformation was. Some of the lines on the face weren't the right depth, and the clothes were too bright a green to serve as adequate camouflage in the forest. Anyone paying close attention would be able to spot the disguise, but the point of the illusion was to _avoid_ any close attention, so Sasuke figured he could do it well enough.

He crossed it off his mental checklist of skills to practice and realised with relish that he could spend the evening working on his only elemental jutsu: the Grand Fireball. Every opportunity he had to work on real ninja skills took him a step closer to killing his target.

Once Sasuke had walked back to his seat and sat down again, he pulled the comb out of his pocket. While it reminded him of all he'd lost, mostly it made him think of quiet, pleasant moments. Evenings as a family in front of the fire, a warm embrace, the gentle rasp of comb on hair. Sasuke gently put it back in his pocket and ran his fingers along the edge – for luck, he told himself.

-O-

Sakura Haruno headed home after the graduation exam with a skip in her step. Her graduating had never been in doubt, but she'd not been sure of where she'd place. Top marks of all the girls in the class – that was really something. She'd mentioned it in front of Sasuke twice, and the first time he'd seemed quite surprised. He'd really _looked_ at her, as though he was re-evaluating her. Sakura was sure today's diary entry would be a very happy one. Her mum had even promised to cook her favourite dinner tonight, to celebrate her becoming a 'real ninja'.

It was so exciting! At last she'd be able to show off her skills. She knew she was good at being a ninja, because she'd always done well in all the lessons and tests. When Sasuke saw how amazing she was, he'd ask her to marry him on the spot. And when Ino saw that there was no point still fighting over Sasuke, they'd be friends again.

"Oi! Sakura!" she heard a familiar voice call from behind her.

"What do you want, Ino?" Sakura couldn't help the slight hardness that crept into her voice. If Ino noticed it, she didn't let on.

"Just... well done on the exam."

"Thanks. You too."

They stood there awkwardly for a moment before Ino broke the silence. "Look, this wasn't my idea. I found this note on my desk when I got home yesterday, only I'm sure I didn't put it there, and it had a bunch of useful advice, and some notes on things we don't normally learn about yet, and it also said to talk to you. So here I am."

"I found something like that as well! Do you know who it's from?" Sakura asked. The eclectic collection of textbook pages, hand-written notes and precise diagrams had somehow been fairly straightforward, mostly describing a variety of training methods that helped with weaving illusions as well as an example of a finished genjutsu. It still wasn't working perfectly for her, but she'd made a surprising amount of progress. "I thought it was just the instructors unofficially letting me work on more advanced material."

Ino nodded uncertainly. "That makes sense – that it was the instructors, I mean. Who else could it be, that would know our strengths and weaknesses this well? ...Hey, we've talked for almost a minute without insulting each other!"

"Yeah," Sakura said, smiling. "It's... nice, I suppose. I've missed this a bit – having someone to talk to like this." Following the advice at the end of the notes – 'be open to restarting old friendships' – was natural as breathing once she'd decided it came from the instructors. Besides, she missed having someone to just hang out with since most girls at the Academy were put off by her towering intellect.

"Swing by the flower shop sometime, and we can catch up properly. I need to go run some errands now, but it was good to talk." Ino waved goodbye as she jumped up and onto a rooftop, then darted out of sight.

When Sakura went to bed that night, she was still thinking about Ino and the information they'd received. The suggestions that she'd tried so far had turned out to be uncannily useful, and it seemed that the same applied to Ino. Who else was this happening to?

Sakura dreamed of marrying Sasuke. They'd have a big wedding, and she'd wear white, and everything would be perfect forever.

-O-

Iruka Umino raced towards the next hiding place that Naruto might have fled to. There was only a single thought running through his head. _Why would Naruto take the scroll?_

He'd always known that Naruto's childhood had been rough. He'd not had too much sympathy when he'd seen the endless mischief and vandalism the boy had become known for; looking back, it was easy to recognise that behaviour as a cry for help. Or was he adjusting too far the other way now? Now that there was something real, something important at stake? Nobody knew what would happen if Naruto tried to use the Fourth's sealing technique, the same technique that had trapped the Demon Fox in Naruto's stomach. At worst, the seal would break and the whole village could be destroyed.

 _Focus!_ Naruto had taken the Scroll of Seven Seals for some reason. Iruka had to find Naruto before he hurt himself trying to do something with it. The village was sealed and Mizuki, his fellow teacher, had been one of those called away to form a perimeter. Nobody, Naruto or otherwise, would be getting out with (or without) the scroll.

Naruto would have been found by now if he wasn't deliberately hiding away somewhere; that much was guaranteed. If he'd been killed – if the seal had broken – the whole village would know. So, by process of elimination, he'd gone to ground inside Konoha. He wouldn't be anywhere he'd been caught before, which ruled out the western training grounds and most of the south of the village. Iruka had just checked the north, so now he would swing around the east and check the forested areas. If he went near Mizuki's place in the perimeter, he could ask for any advice Naruto's other teacher could give.

There! A speck of orange amongst the foliage! Iruka fluidly changed course, leaping down next to his student. "I've found you at last!"

"Wrong! _I've_ found _you!_ "

As Naruto explained what he was doing there, Iruka noticed his own confusion. Something wasn't right. He tried dispelling a genjutsu, but nothing changed. Then, Naruto's story meandered towards some relevant information. "Mizuki told me about the scroll. And this place too." And suddenly Iruka _knew_ , the pieces of the puzzle falling into place with the inevitability of an avalanche.

He wanted to deny it; he'd worked with Mizuki for _years_ , they were friends and comrades, and yet there was almost nothing else that could fit the facts. He clung to a single faint hope. "If I find out this was all a prank," Iruka threatened, anger and fear showing on his face and in his voice. He was interrupted by a flicker of movement in his peripheral vision, and his heart sunk as his body sprang into action.

Iruka flung Naruto to the side, mind half on the fight and half on Mizuki's larger plan. This was _really_ bad. If Mizuki fled with the scroll, he would be chased. He wouldn't make it far. If Mizuki had a plan – and it seemed like he did – then he'd need to cause a distraction that could delay or even kill any pursuit. Something dangerous and attention-grabbing that was close by, preferably. _Like Naruto..._

Iruka was too slow to get out of the way of Mizuki's attack, but protecting Naruto was more important. As the knives cut through his vest and into his body, Iruka was already planning the best way out of this. Unbidden, he remembered a line from a poem someone had left on his desk that morning.

Mizuki looked surprised that his first volley hadn't killed his target, but seemed content to just stand and watch now that he'd lost the element of surprise. A rush of anger let Iruka ignore the pain of a dozen small wounds. The traitor had a small grin on his face as he looked down at his targets, and two huge shuriken strapped to his back. The branch he stood on was too high to reach easily and wide enough that it would shield him from any counterattacks.

"Hey, Iruka, I can explain," Mizuki said. "I've got a pretty good offer and I can take you along too if you like. What do you say, pal?"

Iruka spat on the floor, a mixture of blood and saliva. He regretted not training regularly since he'd become a teacher. If he were in the same shape as two years ago, Mizuki wouldn't _dare_ confront him like this.

"Traitor," he snarled, and the word carried the weight of twenty-two years of loyalty, of caring for the village and the people in it. And pain, as he realised that all their shared coffee breaks, the quick complaints about problem students, shared celebration when their first class graduated, their _friendship_ was built on lies and deceit.

"Naruto," Mizuki taunted in a sing-song voice. "There's something you should know. You've always been hated, haven't you? Excluded, isolated, unfairly cast aside... Have you never wondered why?"

"Naruto. Whatever Mizuki says, he's trying to trick you. He's a traitor to the village. It's all mind games. Don't listen!" Iruka yelled out.

For a moment, as Mizuki's forked tongue spread poisonous half-truths, it even looked like Naruto would heed Iruka's words. It helped, Iruka thought, that Naruto really didn't _want_ to believe the story, especially since Mizuki had filled it with casual insults.

"How do I know you're not just lying to get me to give you the scroll?" It was a question that couldn't really be answered, and Mizuki seemed to flounder a bit. He had to realise that time was not on his side, but he still seemed to be stalling for some reason.

"Naruto. Listen to me," Iruka pleaded. "I'm an orphan too. I know what it feels like to have no-one. But if you show me the technique you learned today, I can pass you. A field promotion. You'll have a team." _And hopefully, nothing like this will ever happen to you again._

Naruto's face lit up and he turned to face Iruka, hands ready in an unusual seal. But it seemed that Mizuki's patience had worn out. He sent a massive shuriken, large enough to bisect his target, whirling down towards Naruto, who had neither the speed to dodge it nor the skill to block it. So Iruka did the only thing he could, and _moved_.

He flung himself over his student, bracing for the last thing he'd feel in this life. The impact never came. Iruka heard the voice he'd been praying for since he'd found Naruto, and felt the tension drain out of his body.

White robes whipped around him as the Hokage walked out of the shadows, two ANBU flanking him while a third held the windmill shuriken. "Mizuki, you are a traitor to the Village of the Hidden Leaf. Your sentence, to be carried out as soon as is expedient, is execution. Take him away to interrogation first."

Hiruzen Sarutobi's voice was measured, calm, and regal. Iruka could have hugged the man if his legs weren't about to give way. He smiled down at the boy looking up at him, unshed tears in his eyes.

From the corner of his eye, he saw the Sandaime walk over to them. His voice was gentler now that the danger had passed. "Naruto, come here, and I'll tell you the story of how the Yondaime built the greatest cage the world has ever seen, and put a single person in charge of guarding it."

Iruka rolled off from where he had still been crouched over and shielding Naruto, letting him get up. Naruto's eyes widened as he realised that Iruka had been ready to take a windmill shuriken for him. Iruka gave him a tired grin and a hand up, and Naruto took it. Now that he was no longer making a cross seal, his technique finally completed and chakra flooded the clearing.

Suddenly there were a hundred Narutos all around the Hokage, appearing in a huge burst of chakra-laden smoke. "By the way, Iruka, do I pass?"

-O-

Kakashi Hatake peered down at the three students he'd been given this year. It seemed someone had taken an unusual interest in assigning him to the team most likely to crack his shell. It was clear why he'd received these particular archetypes – there was the clown, the talented and aggressive loner, and the talented but not very driven girl. These three new genin had little else in common with his original team, though, and he refused to be swayed by such an obvious attempt at emotional manipulation. It set a bad precedent.

He'd not been ordered on – or even offered – any sensitive or particularly important missions in the last few years, and Kakashi knew why. He was considered a flight risk: a talented jounin with no close ties, who was preoccupied with the past and all his dead teammates, and slightly too fond of alcohol and women. It was a formula that he'd seen result in a desertion rate as high as one in three. And now that he was part of that group, Konoha didn't trust him anymore.

Once he accepted a team, the village would give him some time to grow attached. They called it the Will of Fire – using people caring for their comrades as a way to ensure their loyalty. While Kakashi disliked it, it was infinitely preferable to how the other ninja villages enforced obedience. And once Konoha trusted him again, he'd be given dangerous missions once more. Right now, he simply lacked the drive that was necessary to keep up. There was no-one left for him to prove himself to. As long as he could keep up with Might Guy, he considered himself good enough. Starting to care about and then probably losing a team of fresh genin would take him out of the comfortable rut he was currently in.

Kakashi was professional enough that his face didn't so much as twitch while those thoughts passed through his mind. "So, why don't we do introductions?"

He went first, giving vague non-answers that seemed to annoy his audience. Then, he noticed a detail that hadn't stuck out at first. Naruto was wearing goggles.

There weren't many ninja who wore goggles.

Kakashi could count the living on one hand, and the dead on the other.

"...I hate waiting three minutes for the ramen to cook," Naruto was saying when Kakashi started paying attention again.

"Why are you wearing those?" Kakashi asked, gesturing at Naruto's face. Nothing that a new teacher wouldn't usually ask of his charges, he told himself, and if that wasn't his true motivation, no-one needed to know that.

"I was gonna stop wearing them when I got my headband, but they're good for stopping smoke from getting in your eyes and stuff. So now I have my headband on my shoulder instead. It's pretty cool! Why, do you want a pair too?"

"No. They can hurt your peripheral vision, so I'd recommend getting rid of them." Accurate advice, and it would make it less uncomfortable to look Naruto in the eyes when he failed him.

Naruto seemed to consider this recommendation for a moment before shrugging. "Anyway, my goal is to surpass all the Hokage and gain the acknowledgement of every person in the village!" _Save the most surprising for last,_ Kakashi thought to himself.

Sasuke went next. It was roughly what Kakashi had expected. Lots of brooding about killing Itachi Uchiha, despite the fact that Itachi was probably the most dangerous man alive and could almost certainly take on Kakashi with both eyes closed and one hand tied behind his back.

The only surprising part was his plan to restore the Uchiha clan – not the goal, but the way Sasuke talked about it. He was basically telling the world that he wanted to make as many babies with as many women as possible. Then again, if he was fifteen now, and hadn't had a chat with his parents about where babies come from before the massacre, then that would mean that his new teacher (after Kakashi failed them all and they had to retake the year) would have to sit him down and explain a few facts of life to him. Yet another reason to be glad that he wasn't taking on a team.

Sakura's introduction was unexpected, and not in a good way. She seemed temperamentally unsuited to the life of a ninja. Not counting outliers like Itachi, the main limits that ninja had were down to their drive and ambition. A complete nobody who worked their ass off could be one of the elite – if they were willing to give up _every_ distraction and pleasure for the rest of their life. Guy was the perfect example, and Sakura was his opposite. Skill and natural talent in almost indecent amounts, but no drive at all to improve as a ninja.

Kakashi looked at her – _really_ looked, taking in all the minor details and small tells that he wouldn't usually bother with. Soft hands unmarred by callouses from training or small cuts from frequently handling blades. Thin arms and legs that spoke of good chakra control, but no base strength to augment. Long hair that was a liability in even a schoolyard brawl, and it wasn't even put up into a slightly more practical ponytail. On top of everything else, her stance, huddled over and clutching her knees, painted the picture of someone who was in over her head and just starting to realise it.

He analysed Sasuke as well. Strength was there, and plenty of it, as well as control and skill. The arms could have been Kakashi's own at that age, except for the shorter sleeves, and Sasuke's stance kept his hands near his mouth. Kakashi didn't doubt that Sasuke had at least one technique he could quickly launch from that position, and the outline of a kunai under each wristwrap enhanced the image of someone ready to fight at any second. He was very impressive for a genin nominee, and more competent than most chunin exam candidates, although it remained to be seen whether or not Sasuke's other skills were at the same level as his paranoia.

Naruto had calloused hands with no cuts at all. It was quite easy for Kakashi to deduce a regenerative ability – Naruto's weapon skills were good enough that it was clear he practised regularly, but not so good that he never made mistakes. While the orange outfit was good for merging with a crowd, it didn't exactly lend itself to hiding in forests – but somehow he made it work, and wasn't that a nice ace to have? Currently, Naruto was the weakest member, no doubt about it, but he definitely had enough drive to excel one day. His goal was just as out of reach as Sasuke's, and he seemed just as determined to reach it despite all the possible setbacks.

"Alright," Kakashi said, now that the new genin nominees were watching him expectantly. "We have survival training tomorrow."

He talked over the questions and complaints. "This is a different kind of training. _I_ will be your opponent." There was a surefire way to separate the wheat from the chaff – mental pressure. Once the wannabe genins' confusion peaked, he started laughing gently.

"There's a secret purpose to the training. If you fail..." He raised the pressure to a fever pitch. "You go back to the academy. It would be as if you failed the graduation exam. And your odds aren't good, either – two-thirds of the teams get sent back every year. Of the 27 graduates, there will usually be 9 genin."

Chuckling, he enjoyed the looks on their faces. Naruto was trying to hide his surprise, Sasuke looked angry, and Sakura seemed defeated already. Kakashi fielded their questions without offering much information of value, and gave them some misleading advice to top it off, then headed off to his favourite pub. He had a pretty girl to meet, and a new book to keep him company while he waited.

-O-

A/N: Quite a few details from canon have been changed (especially ages, since the genin in canon Naruto don't act anything at all like twelve-year-olds).

I've deliberately taken Kakashi in a different direction. I know that it clashes with later canon, but he won't be a static character – everyone (especially those whose POV I've used so far) will develop in some way.

Everyone in Team Seven has their own hangups in canon, and I plan to explore that further. Hopefully, I can avoid the common pitfall of making a character's weaknesses just be minor quirks that are mentioned once and then forgotten.

I should be posting the edited chapters (i.e. chapters 1-6) every day or every other day, since they're basically finished. Other than that, I'm not making any commitments on length or update frequency. That said, this is going to be my only long story for a while, so other than occasional one-shots I shouldn't be writing much else. I'll tentatively estimate an update every two to four weeks, and a final length of 100-200k words.

If you've read the old version of this story, you can probably skip to the start of the fourth chapter, since the earlier parts' events are being changed in minor ways and some extra information is being added. Mostly, I'm trying to improve the story's writing quality, although from chapter 4 onwards events take a slightly different turn.

Thanks to Fin (aka JohannesSilentio), Wes (aka WesDunne) and Jam (aka still hasn't published anything on here yet - if you're reading this, hurry up!) especially, but also the NarutoFanfiction discord in general, for improving this chapter immeasurably. (Come join us – there's a link in the sidebar of the Naruto Fanfiction subreddit.)


	2. Chapter 2

Sasuke walked back home alone, lost in thought. His team was nowhere near what he'd hoped, and a decent step below what he'd expected in a worst case scenario. Kakashi seemed to be coasting by on past achievements, and Sasuke reckoned even a chunin could take him. The man smelled of booze and acted like a lecher. Naruto and Sakura were clearly both much weaker than Sasuke – had always been, in fact. That disparity would surely only widen now that two semi-capable chunin from the Academy had been replaced by a single lazy fool. Sasuke viciously kicked at a pebble. He took a brief moment of satisfaction from the way it went flying off to the side of the road.

He turned into the lane that held his house. Rows of untended gardens spread out on both sides, and the small one- and two-story houses were starting to break down. Here and there, windows were smashed, and most roofs were missing at least a few tiles. The road was empty and the faint sound of birdsong was all that broke the silence. As always, Sasuke stopped and looked, imagining it rebuilt. There would be a swing-set there, for the children to play on, and that house would be a bakery again, and maybe over there he'd have a tailor or something...

A slight movement in the very edge of his peripheral vision made him instantly slide a kunai out of his holster. He turned just enough to glimpse the possible threat, then relaxed when he spotted Ino.

"Hey!" she called. Sasuke didn't want to talk to her particularly; she didn't usually have anything useful to say and lacked his drive. In short, she was much like everyone else in the Academy. On the other hand, complete isolation was a well-documented risk to a healthy mind and body, and _one_ crazy Uchiha was quite enough, he thought bitterly.

"Hello," he replied. He caught the bundle she threw at him, weighing it in his hands and guessing at the contents. _Two metal rods? No, most likely a set of knives of some sort. They're too long for kunai, though._ "What's this?"

"I thought, since we're on different teams now, and we might not see each other in a while, I'd give you this, so you have something to, y'know, remember me by. It's two swords," Ino forced out. She was blushing slightly, so he politely looked away for a moment rather than acknowledge her lack of composure and embarrass her further. The cloth wrapped around the pair of short, slightly curved swords was a vibrant green colour, but the actual weapons were solid steel with standard camouflaged scabbards and no frills. The weight was nice, and as he hefted them, it was clear they were good quality craftsmanship.

"They're ideal as starting weapons. I thought you might like something with more reach than a kunai, and these seemed your style." Ino had regained her composure, but now it seemed like she was reciting a speech. "If you'd prefer something with a different length, I can exchange them for you, but since you've never used a sword before, that I've seen, I mean, I'm sure you've tried one out before, but it's good to use a short one first, they're easier to hide, and they aren't as heavy..."

"Thank you. It's a very thoughtful gift and I'll remember you fondly when I use them," Sasuke said, stopping her from rambling on. How could he show his gratitude without offering a gift back, which was impossible as he didn't have one ready, or committing to a future meeting? A half-forgotten lesson on manners prompted his next offer. "Would you like to come in for a cup of tea?"

"Oh, um, sure. Also, I think this is yours."

It was a scroll, tightly bound but clearly very long. The writing on it was tiny.

"I'm not sure who it's from. It's addressed to you, but I found it outside the Academy. Someone must have dropped it."

"Thank you," Sasuke said again.

He broke the seal and read the first paragraph, his curiosity overwhelming his patience. He frowned, then read it again.

 _What a sense of timing_ , Sasuke thought. It was the day before he might be returned to the Academy, due to his team's failings. He ought to be cramming in last-minute practice, and he had to be polite to Ino, but he also had another mystery fall into his lap.

-O-

The girl wasn't particularly short for her age, but she definitely wasn't tall either. _Frail_ , she was often called. She lacked the bulk that most of her classmates had built up. Unusually, because she tended to hate solitude, she was sat in her house, on her own, and eating dinner with a scowl on her face.

Sakura was almost never angry. Upset? Sometimes. Annoyed? Frequently, yes. But anger was a feeling she had no practice dealing with. Now that she was definitely _very_ angry, she was also out of her comfort zone, and she didn't like it, which compounded her original feelings. One thing was certain, though – Kakashi would learn what it meant to get between her and her prize.

In the hours since he'd casually turned her day from great to awful, her fear and sadness had slowly given way to a deep rage at the _unfairness_ of it all. Sakura had been put in a group with Sasuke. It had all been _worth it_ ; she'd had the best day in years. And now, that was all gone. She had to defeat a master ninja, who'd been on countless missions, killed enemy ninja in combat, and to top it all off was taller and stronger than her. Looking at his public file hadn't let her find a secret weakness; it had just shown her how out of her depth she was.

Sakura ate mechanically, one hand shovelling food into her mouth while the other held the scroll she was reading. It was the one chance she had to pass. Despite what she'd told Ino, she was becoming more and more certain that there was something more at work than just the instructors passing out a few pointers to their favourite students. The advice had been _too_ accurate, _too_ useful. The extra knowledge was an ace, that much was definite, and Sakura was going to use and abuse her single advantage as much as she could.

She'd finished every exercise and memorised every piece of advice on the first few sections. The next exercise it described was tree walking, but that wouldn't tip the scales in her favour against someone as strong as Kakashi. Hell, it wouldn't even let her best a chunin. Frustrated, but refusing to be stymied that easily, she flicked forward through the scroll, stopping on a random page. There it was!

The food lay on her plate, forgotten. The scroll was clutched in a sweaty hand as she excitedly read onwards, thinking, planning, preparing. Practicing.

The comfortable home around her was completely at odds with her thoughts. Leaving behind the hand-knitted tea cosies and porcelain knick-knacks, she went into the garden, mind bent on murder.

One thing was for sure. If Sakura was going to fail, she'd make sure Kakashi had to _fucking_ work for it.

-O-

Naruto arrived just barely on time for the test. The clearing he was supposed to meet everyone in was in a barely used training ground. _And no wonder no-one wants to go here, look how far away it is from the village..._

Nevertheless, it was a peaceful, relaxing place. A light, airy forest covered most of the area and a stream crossing through on the end nearer the village. The thick carpet of leaves on the ground made it easy to sneak around and the undergrowth left plenty of hiding places, while the shifting shadows could provide cover to moving ninja as well.

Sasuke and Sakura were both already there, standing near each other on the grassy field, and neither looked happy. Sasuke turned his back and stuck his hands in his pockets, apparently fidgeting with something, while Sakura started angrily whispering about how if Naruto were late, he might make her fail.

Sasuke checked his watch, eyebrows rising. "Now that we're all here, and Kakashi's late _again_ , let's plan," he said, kneeling in the short grass. He gestured for the other two to join him, and Naruto reluctantly followed Sakura's lead in forming a small circle.

"How can we plan when we don't know what the task will be?" Naruto asked. Sakura nodded uncertainly, less willing to openly disagree with Sasuke.

Sasuke smirked, a satisfied gleam in his eyes. "Planning for an unknown task is almost impossible, for sure. Luckily, I've got my hands on something we're definitely not supposed to see before the test, since it could completely ruin it." He spread a scroll out on the ground between them.

"It's a report hand-written by the Fourth Hokage," Naruto said, surprised and a bit awed. All the Hokages were impressive, but the Fourth had always been his personal hero – especially now that Naruto knew he was tasked with carrying out the man's final act.

"More than that," Sasuke said, interrupting his chain of thought, "it's a report about the test he gave his genin team. Three genin candidates called Rin, Obito and _Kakashi_. Do you see what I'm getting at? There's a good chance he'll base his test on this one, so we can prepare for it until he arrives."

"...our new teacher was trained by the _Yondaime_?" Naruto shouted, leaping to his feet and striding back and forth. "I need to pass this. I bet he knows all sorts of super secret and powerful techniques that were passed straight down from the last Hokage, and then he'll teach them to me, and..."

"...And you're more likely to pass if you _sit down and listen_ ," Sasuke interrupted. "The test Kakashi took was based on teamwork, so we might need to work together. I don't plan to let you two get me failed."

"I have some useful things I brought with me," Sakura said, trying to defuse the situation. She spread a few items out on the grass, and Naruto went over to have a look. There were two strange long gloves made of dark blue cloth, with metal plates running down one side. Sakura gave them to Sasuke and he put them on, wiggling his hands to check he still had a full range of motion. They were fingerless, Naruto noticed.

"Hey, you found my goggles!" he shouted, recognising them by the distinctive swirls he'd carved into the side. He'd lost them after the team meeting yesterday and had resigned himself to just wearing a Konoha headband. Quickly grabbing them, he put them back on and tied his headband around his upper arm, the way he'd seen some other ninja do. Sakura smiled at him and also passed him a set of armoured gloves, but these only covered his hands. Unlike Sasuke, he was already wearing long sleeves, because he was smart.

Sasuke silently nodded his thanks as Sakura gave him a set of scabbards for his two swords. The belts were too long to fit around his waist, so he slung them across his back instead. The hilts of his swords poked out over his shoulders. "These are good quality. Where did you get them?"

"Just a shop near where I live," she said. "They're gifts, by the way. Consider them graduation presents."

Naruto teared up a little at that. Iruka hadn't been lying when he said Naruto's new team would become his family – not that Naruto had doubted him, he just hadn't expected it to happen so soon. Then he immediately felt bad for not bringing anything of his own. He figured he'd look for something to bring in once they'd passed, so they could celebrate being made a team.

"We have time to prepare until he arrives," Sasuke said, voice full of authority. "Let's scout out the area and set up some traps. That will definitely be useful, no matter what the test is. If it's based on his teacher's test, we'll have time during the actual exam to plan combined attacks."

"Who made you the boss?" Naruto asked, not wanting to follow Sasuke's lead. He obviously preferred to be in charge himself, but his second choice would be Sakura rather than Sasuke.

"Let's not argue now, this test is too important. We can discuss things like that later. Sasuke can be in charge for now, and if we don't pass it won't matter anyway." Sakura was the voice of reason, but it wasn't enough to calm the situation down. Naruto wasn't going to give in without a (verbal, he reminded himself firmly) fight.

"If we want to pass, surely we shouldn't let the quietest guy organise everything? Besides, last time I did group work with him at the Academy he told me to just get out of the way, and said he'd do it best on his own."

Sasuke also had quite a temper, and acted like an idiot when he was angry, but Naruto wasn't stupid enough to mention that. He didn't want to start a fight right before their exams started, after all.

"You're just worried that if I do too well, Kakashi will only take me on as a student," Sasuke said, stung. Naruto hadn't been worried about that, or even thought about it. Until now. He opened his mouth, getting ready to say something to _really_ shut down that arrogant prick. To hell with diplomacy, this was war!

He opened his mouth, considering the best plan of attack. Something about Sasuke's hair to start with, he thought. "You do realise-"

"Shut up!" Sakura shouting was strange enough that it shocked Naruto and Sasuke into silence. "Right. Neither of you is competent enough to lead, _clearly_ , if you can't even stop insulting each other for five minutes. _I_ will be in charge, and if we pass, we can have another discussion about who should be the team leader. Now, let's get a solid plan put together while we place those traps..."

-O-

Kakashi wandered into the clearing, wiping the last of the sleep from his eyes. Better ninja than he had been seriously injured or even killed in training accidents, and he didn't plan to die in such an embarrassing way. To make matters sure, he'd gone out of his way to be well rested, with the last traces of his hangover gone.

The three genin were already there, glaring at him. Well, except for Sasuke, who was trying to hide his anger (unsuccessfully, but still, it's the thought that counts) and instead fidgeting with a comb in his pocket. He'd only been fifteen minutes late today, so he didn't know why they were so upset. Or was he supposed to meet them at nine? Either way, it didn't matter.

"Alright, now that everyone's here, let's get started!" Kakashi pulled a pair of bells out of his pocket. "These are your goal. Whoever gets one by noon gets to pass. If you fail, you go back to the academy for another year. There's two, so one of you is guaranteed to retake the year."

The kids didn't seem as shocked as they should be, but then again they'd probably been on edge for quite a while now. Mental fatigue was just as crippling as physical exhaustion, and it was all the better for him if they didn't put up much of a fight. He'd brought a book along in case they'd failed to show up, like one spectacularly bad potential team, or refused to fight him, like last year's team. Watching genin look for plots within plots and then metaphorically chasing clouds was always amusing for a bit, but got boring quickly.

"This will be a true ninja battle.," he continued. "You can come at me with anything, including lethal attacks. There are no other rules."

Instantly, Naruto ran at him, drawing a kunai with one hand and a fistful of shuriken with the other. Kakashi leant to one side and let the thrown weapons pass by. He waited until the last moment and dodged Naruto's wild swing, kicking his legs out from under him and pushing the genin to the floor with one hand.

He didn't expect either the smoke bomb concealed under Naruto's body, or for Naruto to bounce back up in a handspring and try to cave Kakashi's face in with his feet. He still easily stepped out of the way, but as he moved back and out of the smoke he realised that this had all been planned by the two genin.

He made a simple clone that stepped out ahead of him and was almost instantly dispersed by Sasuke's fist. Kakashi grabbed his arm and threw him onto Naruto. In the smoke, they wouldn't recognise each other quickly and the fight between them would be another sign of their poor teamwork.

Sakura had gone to ground. It was a fact of ninja life that hiding was much easier than finding, and since he wasn't in any particular rush he'd deal with her last. He turned back to the slowly clearing smoke and saw...

Naruto had been kicked out of the cloud by Sasuke and landed next to a tree. A tree that, Kakashi saw with dawning horror, had a deadfall trap rigged in it. A large rock was about to fall on Naruto's head, and he was too dazed to move in time. The goggles, the toppling boulder, the spiky hair was all similar but different to another scene from his nightmares.

As the rock fell, Kakashi realised something wasn't right. At a glance, he took in the scene behind him – Naruto was there too, crouching down in the smoke! The person about to be crushed was a clone, so that Kakashi would let his guard down in trying to protect him. A smart plan for two fresh graduates, but it shouldn't have even come this close to working, unless... Kakashi suppressed his chakra to snap the genjutsu he now realised he was under.

Sakura hadn't just run, he realised. He saw a slight disturbance in the way the wind rustled the undergrowth and rushed over to where he knew she must be hiding. It wasn't a bad spot she'd picked, but he easily found her anyway and grabbed her by the back of the neck.

"Think it's funny, do you? Digging up someone's demons like that?" He barely held himself back from using some very nasty illusions of his own, but Kakashi felt that one little nightmare was justified. On some level, he realised that the aftereffects of the genjutsu were still in his system, but he didn't care. Two handseals was all it took to thrust Sakura's deepest fears to the front of her mind for a few seconds.

Kakashi blocked the knife before Sakura could plunge it into his stomach. So, she was one of those who became _vicious_ when they were cornered. That, he could respect. She was shaking now, drawing in big shuddering gulps of air, and her eyes were so wide that he could see the whites all the way around.

From behind him, he felt Sasuke and Naruto running in. Sasuke drew a sword from over his shoulder, looking the very image of a younger Kakashi, while Naruto's determination to help and relative lack of skills to back it up called up memories of another rescue attempt he'd once seen. His anger faded and he stood there, watching the team – they were definitely a team now – as they closed on him. Kakashi could see in their eyes that they no longer expected to pass, that their one best shot had already failed, but that they were willing to fight anyway.

He obliged them.

When the bell rang, none of the three had even managed to _touch_ the bells on his waist, but it didn't matter. Kakashi saw it in the way they glared at him, and the unity in their stances and their mutters; this was a team he could teach.

-O-

Naruto was gesturing to Iruka, one hand holding a pair of chopsticks, as they sat in the ramen booth. Behind him, a row of paper sheets kept out the sights, but not sounds, of the lane. "And then he said that we could all pass! It was a trick all along, and he was just making sure we were good at being on a team together. The bells didn't even matter. We thought it might be a teamwork exercise at the start, but when he didn't pass us after we fought him as a team I panicked. Turns out he was just being a bastard, I guess, and keeping us guessing."

His smile was infectious, and soon the chunin was grinning too. "Ah, let me tell you about my own first genin test. I was on a team with a really weak guy who was decent at ninjutsu, but couldn't even do five pushups, and a girl who used a spiked chain whip thing, but had put her own eye out while practising. We had to find and rescue a lost kitten, and our instructor told us if we didn't find it he'd leave it to die." Naruto was hanging on his every word, and it felt good. He continued telling his story, waving his arms around and really getting into it.

"That turned out to be a lie, luckily, because we all failed and I had to retake the test the year after! None of us realised that it was an information-gathering test, and we were supposed to track it down or try to trick the jounin into telling us something. Instead, we just combed the woods, and we couldn't cover more than a quarter in the time we had – and even that wasn't that thoroughly.

"Luckily I had a different team the next year, and we passed quite easily. One of them's a jounin now, and the other is retired from active duty and does paperwork all day in the Hokage tower. We still meet up regularly, and stay in touch with our instructor – of course, he has a new team now. Anyway, you're ahead of where I was at your age, already. At this rate I should be watching my back, right?"

"Yeah, you better believe I'm gonna catch you up super fast. I'm going to be the youngest Hokage, even younger than the Fourth, and everyone will respect me!" It was nothing that Naruto hadn't said a million times before, but here, and now, Iruka almost believed it himself.

The two ate and talked long into the night, while overhead, the moon looked down.


	3. Chapter 3

Team Seven were slowly sorting a stack of books in a small, musty room in the Konoha General Library. Or rather, the three genin were. Kakashi sat in the corner next to the open window, carefully observing to make sure nothing went wrong. He turned the next page of his book, a recently acquired copy of Jiraiya's latest work.

"This is _boring_ ," Naruto complained for what must have been the twentieth time. Kakashi kept reading.

"Well, you'd best make jounin nice and quickly. That way you can just sit around and do nothing," Sasuke snarked. Kakashi finished the chapter and frowned when it ended on a cliffhanger. Who could have stolen Megumi-chan's swimwear? With a sigh, he packed the book away. The mystery would have to wait.

"I have a special announcement to make," Kakashi told his team. Naruto was excited and immediately paid attention, of course, but Sakura and Sasuke had fallen for Kakashi's mock serious tone enough times that they barely looked up from their work. He poked them from behind and they both paused with a huff, looking at him properly now. "Hey, don't make faces like that. The announcement is that we're now done with D-rank missions... unless, of course, you want to do some more?"

Truth be told, he was sick of them himself. It was barely a month since he'd taken on the three genin, and in that time the Hokage hadn't let him go on any solo missions. Apparently, he was supposed to be concentrating on 'nurturing three fresh graduates as they started their journeys towards mastery'. Kakashi really wanted a chance to get out of Konoha for a bit.

Naruto hugged him, Sakura cheered and even Sasuke looked less moody. Then, of course, the librarian came over and shushed them. Kakashi sighed and watched _his team_ – and it still surprised him how natural that phrase sounded – finish up, then hurried them off towards their first C-rank and hopefully some excitement.

As they walked towards the Hokage tower to collect their pay and next mission, Kakashi carefully considered each of his charges. He'd have to be very careful about matching their first real mission with their strengths so that nothing could go wrong.

Sasuke had stopped seeing his teammates purely as obstacles, which was nice. He was also much less of a pain to deal with now that he'd learned some patience, and Kakashi occasionally just set him some solo exercises to do while he concentrated on Sakura and Naruto, who needed the supervision more. Sasuke loved his swords, even though Kakashi could tell he wasn't particularly talented with them. Maybe that was why – Sasuke, who'd been good at everything in the past, finally had a challenge.

Sakura's self-consciousness was becoming a problem. She went out of her way to stay neat and clean, and didn't even like working up a sweat. It was obvious that Sasuke was the cause, but Kakashi wasn't about to wade into the bad soap opera that was her attempts to get a date.

On the other hand, she'd spend hours every evening snaring her parents as well as the local wildlife in increasingly complex genjutsu. Hopefully, she'd start taking her physical training as seriously once she'd been on her first C-rank. There wasn't an advice manual for new jounin teachers, but Kakashi had asked around and that tended to be the point in a new genin's career that got them motivated.

Naruto was enthusiastic. That about summed up his strengths as well as his weaknesses. Kakashi had watched him train on his own, and Naruto was incredibly motivated to do absolutely everything. He'd practice some kicks, then halfway through change his mind and do ninjutsu training, then drop that and throw kunai instead, but before he got very far with that he'd be back to physical conditioning. Kakashi had seen him start a dozen exercises and finish exactly one. Teaching him ninjutsu would be hell, he already knew.

On the plus side, the Shadow Clone technique was versatile enough that Naruto was already quite useful. He could throw a _lot_ of kunai at once, fill an entire forest with traps, and keep a lookout while also getting some sleep. Kakashi would just have to work on his taijutsu for now and hope that he matured a bit.

Then again, Kakashi had changed a bit himself. Physically, he was much the same – he wasn't planning on doing any more crazy stunts like climbing mountains one-handed. Emotionally, however, he felt much better. He was less melancholy when drunk, for a start, and much pickier about who he went home with when the bars closed.

The Hokage Tower was fairly empty in the afternoon, so Kakashi didn't have to wait to see the mission assignment desk. It took around ten minutes of arguing with the chunin there to get the mission he wanted, but in the end, Team Seven were tasked with delivering supplies to an outpost off towards Tea country.

It was pretty much perfect for getting his students' feet wet, so to speak. They would pick up a bunch of sealed-away food and tools, then go on a two-day return trip through the safest part of Konoha's forests. Naruto would get to see a little more of the world, Sasuke would feel less like he was being held back, and Sakura would calm down when she saw how safe most missions were. And he could either train them or read his book some more.

Nothing could go wrong.

Kakashi reminded Naruto twice to bring the correct gear, and then wrote it down for him anyway. Sasuke and Sakura had both headed off as soon as he'd told them tomorrow's meeting time and place, so he figured they either knew what to take or were about to learn the hard way.

It had been a while since Kakashi had had to be up at dawn, and he decided to make sure he'd be on time for once. That meant no drinking, he told himself firmly. That night, he lay awake for a long time, resisting the urge to grab a bottle. In the end, he used a hand mirror to cast a sleeping technique on himself. The genjutsu-influenced sleep was supposed to be calm, but he still had worse nightmares than in years.

He woke up two hours before dawn with trembling hands and a bloodshot eye, disgusted with himself.

-O-

Naruto didn't go home to pack – at least, not straight away. He wanted to tell Iruka about his mission first since it was a big moment for him. Swinging by the Academy, he recognised a few of his old teachers, but the receptionist told him Iruka was on leave for three months. After getting the address, Naruto went to Iruka's home instead.

Iruka lived a small cottage tucked away near one of the gates, but Naruto thought it looked wonderfully peaceful. There were boxes full of flowers on the windowsills, and an elderly woman was slowly watering them with a lime green watering can. It had purple frogs on it, and Naruto chuckled.

"Hey," he called out as he got closer. "Is Iruka in, do you know?"

She shook her head and pointed at her ear, so he repeated his question more loudly. Her eyes widened in understanding and she beckoned him closer. "He's away on a mission, and won't be back for another few days," she croaked out.

Naruto spent two minutes giving her a message for Iruka, and then thanking her for her time, before going to pack his bags for the mission. It was a ten-minute journey by rooftop, although his journey was interrupted when he was almost at his doorstep.

"Hello."

Naruto flinched a little. He hadn't realised anyone was near him at all, and unexpectedly seeing Shino right next to him was creepy as hell. Why was Shino in this part of Konoha, anyway? The Aburame all lived in a completely different quarter of the village, and it was late enough that he probably wasn't stopping by for a social visit.

"Hi Shino! What are you doing here?" he asked, openly curious. Since he was a ninja now, picking up information on people's routines was considered a compliment rather than creepy.

"I saw you and wanted to talk for a bit." That didn't answer his real question, but Naruto figured there was no point trying to press Shino on it. Besides, that was more words in a row than Naruto could remember ever hearing from him before. Maybe he'd loosened up a bit since graduating? Naruto decided to have some fun, either way.

"Ok, let's talk. Oh! You see that house down there?" Naruto pointed to a particularly large two-story building, with white plastered walls and red shingles on the roof. "I put some frogspawn in the water tank a few years ago. And four doors down and across the street, I plugged up the drainpipe with her rubbish, because she wasn't recycling properly. And there was another house that's been torn down now, where I painted a giant turd on the roof and they never even knew. And one time I shaved that guy's dog and dyed his name on its side, because he let it crap all over the streets. Hey, that gives me an idea-"

"Informative as this is, that's not what I wanted to talk about. How are you adjusting to ninja life?" Shino asked. Naruto frowned. He'd expected to impress Shino at least a little bit with the frogspawn, but maybe he was too uptight to appreciate a good prank.

"It's not bad, but the training is quite boring. I know it's supposed to make me strong, but surely there's a better way? Like, more interesting. And I've not done any proper missions yet, but our first C-rank is tomorrow. But Kakashi said it would be quite boring and straightforward. The 'boring' part is starting to become a theme, you know?"

"I have some advice for you. Being a ninja is dangerous and you should equip yourself as well as you can." Shino showed Naruto a small pottery jar with a wide cork stopper on top. There was, Naruto saw with a sinking feeling in his chest, a bright red hazard sign on the side. "Be very careful, though. This, for example, is completely safe to handle – unless you have a small cut on your hand, in which case it's lethal. I don't have an antidote. With this, a single caltrop can kill, and I can make more of it very easily by using my insects. Poison can be very effective and I recommend you secure some for yourself. Your traps' effectiveness would increase rather a lot."

The poison vanished back into Shino's coat. Naruto was speechless. He'd known that he might have to kill at some point, but to plan out deliberate traps like that was cold-blooded murder.

"What if someone you don't want to kill walks into a trap? Like, some farmer or merchant or something? You said you don't have an antidote."

Shino was silent for a moment. "I am careful to only place traps where there is a low chance of collateral damage, and remove them afterwards."

" _Low chance!?_ You'd risk killing a bunch of innocent bystanders just so you can play around with poisons, or what?" Naruto was furious. He'd once been suspected of poisoning a merchant in the village, as the man's death had happened a few hours after Naruto had been seen sneaking chilli powder into his tea. When the real culprit had been found, it had turned out to be an assassination attempt that had hit the wrong target.

Shino stood stock still, not a single muscle moving. "You may come and apologise to me when you truly understand what it is to be a ninja." His voice was frosty and he turned to leave.

"One last thing. Be very careful tomorrow. The first C-rank mission for new genin is the career step with the single highest casualty rate. Don't be overconfident." And with that, he was gone.

Naruto watched him leap off over the rooftops, still angry but also impressed that Shino had gone out of his way to warn him. He dropped down from the building, taking to the streets for the last stretch on his way home. He'd had enough stress for one day. And Shino would have to apologise to _him_ first, he decided.

-O-

Sakura rolled out of bed and straight into the shower. Her routine was simple and efficient. Twenty-five minutes after still being asleep, she was sat at the breakfast table in a red training dress and with dry hair. She slowly combed it, for lack of something better to do, as her mother finished frying some eggs.

"Those smell good," she said, piling them onto her plate. "Good source of protein, too."

Her mother looked guilty for a split second. "Yes, it's important that your body gets what it needs to grow."

Sakura had a sneaking suspicion that she was about to be lectured. She started shovelling the food down her throat as quickly as she could. "Gotta hurry, I don't want to be late!" she forced out.

"Good morning, darling," her father said from behind her. "I'd hate to make you late, so I'll just quickly mention this now – we've arranged another offer and your mother and I really think you should consider accepting."

Sakura swallowed her mouthful of food with great reluctance and gritted her teeth. "For the last time, I don't want to do extra taijutsu training. I don't care _who_ you get to teach me. I'm never going to be a taijutsu specialist and I just want to focus on other things right now." They'd been getting steadily worse over the last few weeks – at first, her mother had just brought it up in passing, and she'd laughed it off. Now it seemed they were really set on making her train under some martial artist, rather than continue her own studies.

"How about this?" her father asked. "You go along to one session – just one – to see if you like it, and we'll drop the subject for now. We just think that you'll be safer if you have some more hand-to-hand experience."

"We just worry about you, dear." That made turning them down so much worse, but Sakura still had no interest in becoming a muscled freak who hit things because she couldn't do anything better with her chakra. And she didn't miss that her parents thought she couldn't take care of herself.

"I've got to go now. My mission starts soon," she said, and got up, shrugging her backpack on. She grabbed another buttered slice of toast and headed for the door.

"Be careful," her father called after her.

"We love you," her mother added.

Sakura hurried off towards the meeting point, trying to put the negativity behind her out of her mind. A few quick handseals and she wove a simple illusion over herself, hiding a small pimple on her jaw. Who needed makeup when there was such a fast and easy replacement?

She almost missed spotting Hinata, caught up in her elaborate plans to remove every blemish on her face.

"Hey, Hinata!" Sakura called out across the street, jogging to catch up. She was early enough that she could afford to stop for a chat, after leaving the house a little before she'd planned to. "How are you doing? I haven't seen you since graduation."

"I'm alright," Hinata said. Sakura could barely hear her over the sounds of the busy street. "I'm just going to meet my team for a mission later."

Sakura smiled, trying to get her to lighten up. "That sounds exciting. We're off on a mission too – you're with Shino, Kiba and... Kurenai, right?"

Hinata nodded. "You're on Naruto's team, aren't you. How is he doing?"

"He's a much better ninja than when he graduated, but Sasuke still beats him in every spar," Sakura giggled. "I don't think Naruto will ever win one of their fights, to be honest."

"He'll definitely surpass Sasuke one day," Hinata disagreed, her voice stronger now. "Anyway, where are you meeting them?"

"Just around the corner here." Sakura pointed out the square just inside Konoha's eastern gates. Sasuke was already sat on one of the benches, double-checking his equipment. "Well, it was nice catching up with you, but I'd hate to make you late."

"I can spend another few minutes here," Hinata said. "I was early this morning. What training have you been doing?"

"I've mostly been doing chakra exercises, and practising illusions. It's quite fun but I'm really struggling with this one where you have to put sort of chakra strings out of your eyes. It's a step towards casting genjutsu by eye contact, but I'm a long way off that."

Sakura's heart skipped a beat as Sasuke came over and joined in the conversation. He rarely talked to her when Naruto wasn't also around, but despite that, she still had a childish half-wish that he'd sweep her off her feet. "You should try building more physical strength, otherwise you'll lose any fight where your opponent manages to get close to you." His tone was subtly disapproving and it cut her like a knife. She hung her head and, after a short pause, Hinata stepped in to fill the awkward silence.

"Our team has been performing tracking exercises. Our specialities work well together, but we need practice to mesh better." Sakura could have kissed Hinata for it. She swallowed her shame, deliberately turning away from Sasuke.

He either didn't notice or didn't care.

Naruto came screeching into the square mere seconds before they were supposed to set off. "I'm on time, you guys!" he shouted. Hinata smiled softly and waved at him.

"Tch." Sakura's disapproval bounced straight off of Naruto's relentless good mood.

"Hi Hinata! Nice seeing you here! Are you coming with us? That'd be really cool, you know, since we don't get to talk much. What have you been up to?"

Hinata looked completely overwhelmed, Sakura thought. She somehow stuttered out a greeting and then stood there, silently blushing. That was when Kakashi swept in – 7 o'clock on the dot, Sakura noted with surprise – and herded them out of the gates and onto the mission. Sakura barely got a chance to say bye to Hinata before she was manoeuvred down the road and past the treeline.

They set a punishing pace, Kakashi somehow still reading his book as the squad raced along the wide and slowly winding dirt road. It wasn't until they slowed their pace, fifteen minutes later, that Sakura got a chance to take in the scenery.

Tall trees towered above her, their sweeping branches casting deep shadows across the forest floor. Some of the trunks were easily as wide as her whole _house_ , and she could have driven a cart along the sturdier limbs above her head. There was dense undergrowth stretching off into the distance, with occasional rustling noises from what were almost certainly birds or small animals.

Sakura felt very small and exposed.

-O-

It was noon and Sasuke watched his team rest by a stream. Each of them had irritated him in a different way, and would probably continue to do so for the rest of the journey. He wished the mission were over already.

Naruto never shut up. Maybe he was incapable of not talking, Sasuke thought. They were both bored, but at least Sasuke didn't inflict random babble on his teammates, because he was _considerate_. Naruto had told everyone more (probably incorrect) information about Konoha, ninja life, the Hokage, Naruto himself, and ramen in one morning than Sasuke had learned in a month in the Academy.

And that led nicely into his second problem – Kakashi. Or rather, the fact that Kakashi might as well have not come. Naruto might have shut up if Kakashi had asked him to, or given him some training to do, but no. There was no instruction, no guidance, and Kakashi wasn't even keeping an eye on his surroundings. Sasuke's nerves were raw after half a day of twitching at every sound, since he couldn't afford to relax for even half a second.

Even now, he was constantly scanning the thick undergrowth. It was impossible to see more than twenty metres, and the rest of his team simply didn't have their guard up, so Sasuke had to constantly turn in a slow circle to keep the whole area in his sight.

It wasn't paranoia if they really were out to get him, and he knew for a fact that Cloud had a standing seven-figure bounty on any unsealed (and alive) Hyuga or Uchiha.

And Sakura was making it unnecessarily difficult. She'd not only not taken his earlier advice about physical training, but was also trying to annoy and distract him as much as she could. Well, he wouldn't go out of his way to help her again, he decided. She was still practising her genjutsu, which he didn't mind in and of itself, but for some reason she was playing with her hair colour and nails. He kinda wanted to mutter a biting comment in passing. Something like 'why don't you work at _being_ useful rather than trying to just look like it?'

He'd caught himself tracing the delicate curve of her earlobe twice in the first hour, the way her hair flowed like a waterfall, a wonderful glistening mass that cascaded down her back. Her perfect green eyes had offset her flawless skin perfectly. Then he'd realised that he didn't usually think in poetry, and noticed that she was fucking with him. His answering illusion had put phantom insects on her back, and he made them crawl around every time she cast a genjutsu or tried to talk. It was incredibly petty of him, but it really improved his mood for around two minutes. Then she broke the illusion.

The second time he'd tried it, it hadn't worked.

"Break's over! Let's get back on the road. We're only an hour or so away from the outpost now," said Kakashi. Sasuke leapt to his feet. The earlier the mission was over, the earlier he could relax.

"Kakashi, what does 'pleasures of the flesh' mean?" Naruto asked. He'd just gotten a glimpse of the back of Kakashi's book.

"It's how you prepare fruits that are very rich and juicy, like peaches. Haven't you ever heard the phrase 'peach flesh'?"

"Does that include plums?"

Kakashi nodded with a serious expression. "Most soft fruits, I suppose, as well as some vegetables. Tomatoes come to mind. Think of anything that splats nicely when you drop it."

Sasuke tried his best to ignore them. He didn't care whether Kakashi read cooking books in particular, just that the jounin couldn't be trusted to watch his surroundings.

The woods soon sped by, a blur of green and brown. This early in the year there were no fallen leaves covering the ground, and so Sasuke could run as fast as he wanted without risking slipping. The point of the outpost they were resupplying was to patrol this stretch of the border, after all, so there was – at last – no need to be cautious here. Team Seven arrived in a spray of dirt, having raced the last stretch. Kakashi loped in at the same pace he'd had the whole day, uncaring about being in last place, while Sakura and Naruto bickered about who'd come second and who'd come third. Sasuke ignored them, secure in his position as the fastest genin.

The three huts that made up the bulk of the outpost were rather unimpressive. They were mostly made out of compressed stone that would resist anything short of ninjutsu or explosives, and one building that was probably a jail had thick iron grates covering the windows. There were also piles of seasoned lumber lying around, and the clearing was large enough that another few houses could be set up in a short amount of time. This was also a staging area for a potential invasion, Sasuke realised.

The outpost was at the top of a gentle slope that stretched away in all directions, but he hesitated to call it a hill. It was too flat for that. At least it meant that the watchtower set up in the middle of the clearing had a better view of the surrounding area. The tower's foundation was the smallest hut, whose purpose Sasuke could only guess at. Maybe supplies? It hard no windows, and it supported a solid log structure with a platform on top, so it had to be sturdy.

Two Konoha ninja were watching them from the top of the tower, he noticed. They were almost directly between him and the sun, which made them hard to spot.

"Konoha ninja bearing supplies!" Kakashi called out. "I'm supposed to hand them over to Rabbit."

"That's me." A tall man wearing a rabbit mask came out of the prison. Sasuke was impressed. If there was an ANBU member here, that meant it was a very important defensive location.

Rabbit and Kakashi started talking about the outpost, and he listened in for a bit – if they'd wanted privacy then there was no way he'd be able to hear anything, anyway. It was mostly logistics, though, and incredibly dull, so he wandered off and sat down near the forest's edge.

Sasuke was careful not to walk out of the clearing. A few of the more obvious traps were easy to spot, but he knew there would be buried explosive tags and more devious and well-hidden dangers as well.

"Alright, team," Kakashi said. "We're going to rest here overnight, and head back tomorrow. There are five prisoners we'll be taking with us to Konoha to stand trial."

Sasuke wasn't surprised at the extra delay, but that didn't make it less irritating.

-O-

The prisoner transport wasn't entirely unexpected, but Kakashi had hoped to avoid it. Like many things, it simply hadn't gone his way today.

His team went to sleep early, tired from their run. He made a mental note to run some more speed and endurance training when they got back to Konoha, but right now he didn't want to do anything other than lie there and stare at the dark ceiling. His pulse was slightly elevated, he noted clinically, and he was sweating slightly. He'd been using a rather simple ninjutsu to eliminate his scent during the journey, but it hadn't stopped once he'd arrived and settled down.

He pulled out a small mirror and cast a genjutsu again.

The next morning they set off particularly early. Kakashi was keen to be back in Konoha, celebrating the mission's success with a glass of something.

He took care to look grim and on guard. It was one thing to subtly mess with Sasuke, but quite another to let the prisoners he was supposed to be guarding think he was less than capable. All five were facing execution for robbery, extortion and murder, and they looked the part – lots of scars, long stringy hair, and missing teeth were the most immediately obvious features, but there was also an undercurrent of viciousness in every one of them.

Kakashi had pulled Team Seven aside before they set off and stressed that these were dangerous men and women, even without any training. They'd killed before and were in a desperate situation. Sakura, of all people, had asked why Kakashi didn't just execute them right away. Explaining why a lack of trials even for obviously guilty people was a bad thing took him a few minutes, but privately he'd also have much preferred to cut their throats and be done with it.

He hated the idea of threats like that near his team.

The trip home was fairly slow. He made sure to stay at the rear of the group so that he could keep an eye on everything, and rotated his genin around the flanks. The prisoners dragged their feet, slow and sullen. They knew what waited for them when they arrived. Kakashi estimated that it would take two days to get back to Konoha, even if he pushed them. The two women in particular were pretending to struggle under the weight of their manacles, but he knew it was an act. He let it go on; he'd rather they stayed with an ineffective stalling strategy than find something better.

The Academy had drilled his students on how to set up an overnight camp, but he found a few points where they were sloppy. The fire wasn't in a deep enough pit, and Sasuke hadn't gathered clods of earth to tamp it down overnight. Normally Kakashi would have taken the opportunity to teach his students something, but he was too on edge. He kept watch the entire night, taking a few stimulants to keep his focus sharp. It was nothing he hadn't done before.

The night went by without incident and he started to relax – breakfast was straightforward and by midmorning, Konoha was only an hour away. Sasuke had drifted off to the side to 'scout'; now that they were in patrolled territory, he probably felt safe enough to go and explore. Naruto had held out ten minutes before his boredom overwhelmed his desire to not copy Sasuke.

Sakura was at the head of the small convoy when she stopped to look at a flower at the wayside. Kakashi didn't recognise it, but it wasn't one of the many poisonous or nutritious plants found in Konoha's forests so he didn't really care. As she knelt down and smelled it, the prisoners slowed and Kakashi gave the one in front of him a little prod.

She stumbled, falling gracelessly over a small pebble and screaming in pain. Kakashi was distracted for a split second until he saw the man nearest Sakura – a whip-thin bandit with a ruined nose and burns on his hands – take two swift steps and strike at her. A sharp splinter of rock from underneath his coat lanced at her head, just as she turned to face Kakashi, mouth open to say something.

Kakashi raced to intercept but the other captives were already in motion, trying to grab at him or club him with their shackled wrists. He barely slowed, killing them with precise stabs and slashes of his kunai, but by the time he reached Sakura and butchered the last man, she'd already been cut.

His heart was racing but he was confused as well as shocked. There had been nothing for any of the prisoners to gain by that, and they should have known it. He crouched down as Sakura cradled the side of her head, trying to get a look at the wound.

It was nasty, a long jagged tear in her skin that bisected her ear and sent blood sheeting down the side of her face. "You're safe now," he said gently. Strands of her hair were gummed up and sticking to her head. It didn't look like she was in any immediate danger, but he still wanted to get her to a hospital as soon as possible. It was all too easy for infection to set in.

She was quietly sobbing and clutched a kunai desperately to her chest, angry and afraid at the same time.

"It's safe. Don't worry, they're all dead. We're almost in Konoha and we can get that ear repaired easily enough." As he tried to calm her down, he carefully bandaged up her wound. "There's no-one left to hurt you, and if you walk next to me you'll be in no danger at all." His voice was soft. He had a lot of practice when it came to battlefield first aid, and a calm voice helped a lot if the subject was in shock. Kakashi took a moment to appreciate the detachment he felt.

He made doubly sure that all five prisoners were dead, and had just started to bury them when Naruto and Sasuke both scrambled out of the undergrowth, out of breath. They stopped, shocked at the dead bodies and blood splatters.

Naruto, predictably, started talking first. "What happened? Sakura, are you OK? Are you- are you _bleeding_?" He walked over and tried to hug her. Kakashi was quick enough to catch her reflexive stab before she disembowelled her teammate, and when Naruto put his arms around her she clung to him like a child clings to their mother.

Meanwhile, Sasuke stood frozen at the edge of the trees. He stared at the corpses that were scattered on the forest floor amongst the dead leaves, not even blinking. His eyes were wide enough that Kakashi could see the whites all the way around, and he was hyperventilating. Sasuke reached for a kunai with fingers that were trembling too hard to grip it properly, then gave up and sat down with his back against a tree.

 _Of course,_ Kakashi thought to himself. He'd suspected Sasuke had some lingering trauma, but this was worse than he'd thought. At least the mission was all but over, now that their prisoners were dead.

It was a long and unpleasant afternoon for all four of them as they finished the journey back.

-O-

A/N: The website is being funky and not letting me see reviews, so if you've asked any questions I hope to get to them as soon as I'm able to read them. PM me if you urgently and desperately need to know something.


	4. Chapter 4

Sakura would be making a full recovery. It was the first thing the nurse had told her, even before mentioning the lack of infection or that her ear would be regrown. It was about as comforting as the cool green walls and crisp white sheets of her hospital room – _sterile_ , that was the word she was looking for.

 _It could have been worse._

She'd heard it from half a dozen different people so far. Her parents were happy she was (relatively) fine after her first real mission. Her team-mates were glad she would be ready for action again soon. Kakashi was probably the only one who knew how close to death she'd been, and had seemed appropriately relieved afterwards; on the other hand, nobody except Kakashi himself knew how much of what he said and did was an act.

A cut to the throat instead of the head would mean her bleeding out before reaching Konoha's walls. A solid stab in her eye socket was another almost guaranteed kill. If the prisoner had been through a single year of the Konoha Academy curriculum, Sakura wouldn't have come home at all, rather than as a nervous wreck with her first real injury.

The short not-really-a-fight kept replaying in her head.

She simply hadn't been good enough. Hell, she hadn't known she was _really_ in danger until it was too late. If she wasn't safe as a fully qualified genin against a man who'd repeatedly burned himself trying to eat soup the night before he attacked her, and was wearing manacles, then how could she ever be safe when her missions inevitably pitted her against other ninja?

Sakura reached up to touch the bandages around her right ear. It was scheduled to be regrown later that day. The ear would be submerged in nutrient slop, and then medical jutsu would be used to create new flesh and mould it onto her. The nurse had explained it all to her on her rounds earlier. Sakura remembered the pitying look she'd received along with her hot drink – it had really sucked to be seen as a scared fourteen-year-old girl instead of as a ninja.

She wrote a short note apologising for leaving so quickly because some parts of her personality couldn't be changed, and then climbed out of the window because other parts could.

There was the seed of an idea, and she wanted to try it out as soon as possible. Sakura was restless now, and wanted – no, needed – to be doing something. Thoughts and designs were picked apart and discarded or kept as she hunted through the village.

She couldn't find Sasuke, her first choice for a training partner. He'd always been able to give her the slip at the Academy, so apart from the team training area she had no idea where he might have gone. He could also have just been sleeping in after a stressful first mission, she considered, but he'd not gone a single day without training since they'd been on a team together and Sakura doubted he'd start now.

Kakashi was even worse – on days with no team training, he seemed to simply evaporate. Naruto claimed that he drank and slept around a bunch, but surely a proper ninja would be more, well, _dignified_ than that? Sasuke hadn't even tried to hide his laughter when she'd mentioned that to them.

That left her with two options – the childhood friend who was seemingly never around when Sakura needed her, or the team-mate who was always there no matter how annoying he got and how much she wished he'd leave.

Making up her mind, Sakura set off towards the training ground Ino's team usually met in. Halfway there she stopped when she spotted an orange figure slowly carrying a decent-sized boulder across a field.

-O-

Naruto was glad of any excuse for a break when he spotted Sakura. He dropped his rock and wiped the sweat out of his face.

Naruto was working hard when Sakura found him. He wiped the sweat out of his eyes with his orange top, and then turned away from the boulder he'd been moving, leaving the damp and smelly jumper on top of it. Next time he'd wear just shorts and a t-shirt for training like this, he decided.

Sakura was still slightly pale from blood loss, and her bandages hadn't come off yet. She was wearing the same clothes as usual, including her headband, which was securely fastened on her forehead. She looked a much sorrier sight than she normally did for team meetings or training of any sort. And yet, Naruto couldn't help but notice that she was much colder, harder and more focused than she'd ever been. Even from twenty feet away, he was a little wary of her.

"I need to be better. Can you help me?" The words didn't sound like Sakura. The voice was right, but the tone was too direct. Naruto was slightly uncomfortable with how she'd changed.

"Um," he began, "don't you have an operation to go to? You know, for your..." He gestured at his own ear.

"No," she said. He wasn't going to press the issue.

"In that case, sure. What should I do?" Naruto had no idea what she'd want, or whether he'd be able to help her, but he'd dreamed of some private time with Sakura for years. And it was like his training schedule said in big orange letters at the top: _Nothing ventured, nothing gained..._

"Try to resist." Sakura focused, wove a set of handseals, and suddenly Naruto's attention was caught by the branch of a tree to her left. It was sturdy, three times his height and with a gnarled trunk. Its leaves swayed in the wind, turning over and revealing their silvery undersides. The tree as a whole moved slightly, scattering small shadows over the ground.

Naruto was unable to look away. On some level he knew he needed to stop Sakura from getting closer, but... the tree distracted him again before he could properly form the thought. Now that he knew what was happening to him, he could feel the distortions around Sakura that pushed his attention away whenever he tried to look at her. He swirled his chakra, trying to break the illusion, but it settled back onto him every time he thought it was gone.

It was almost as frustrating as it was terrifying. Sakura had closed most of the gap between them, hands still holding the final seal of her illusion technique. There was nothing he could do right now to stop her.

She was watching him intently, green eyes wide and staring. _The eyes!_ Naruto focused on her feet and found it much easier to ignore the seductively shifting branch. However, he still wasn't able to move – away, towards her, nothing worked. As soon as he had any intention of moving, it would immediately be derailed. He raised a foot, but it plopped back down when a stray blade of grass caught his eye. His hands twitched out, only to fall to his sides again.

As Sakura stepped almost into range, she carefully slid a kunai into her mouth while maintaining her handseal. The glint of it made Naruto tense involuntarily, and he felt his eyes slide up towards her face. Before he could be fully ensnared again, he tried one last trick.

Naruto closed his eyes. Walking forward and reaching out to both sides of where he knew Sakura must be, he swept his hands inward, grabbed and pulled. He scooped Sakura into his arms and as soon as he interrupted her hands, the illusion broke.

He was standing almost on top of her. Some of her hair was sticking up and tickling his nose, and he could feel her breath whispering over his neck and chest. Her hand was on his stomach, feeling the slight muscle there – and how he wished he'd been more consistent with his sit-up regimen! He was breathing harder than usual, his teenage hormones taking hold. And if he'd noticed that, she would definitely have noticed it too.

Their basically-a-hug had already lasted several seconds, and Sakura hadn't moved away yet. She turned her face up to him, and Naruto noticed – surprised – that he was half a foot taller than her. She was so big in his mind, he'd forgotten how small, how _fragile_ she looked. Her eyes were so very green, and as her lips parted slowly, she licked them nervously…

Then she shook off whatever mood had taken hold of her. "Let's try that again."

"Sure." Naruto cursed himself for not kissing her when he had the chance. After all, what were the odds that he'd ever get a better moment than that?

-O-

When Iruka got back from a routine guard mission, the last thing he expected was his next-door neighbour to drop by and mention a visit from Naruto. After putting his gear away, he immediately set off to find out why Naruto had come to visit him.

It was surprisingly straightforward to find Naruto's distinctive orange outfit. Iruka picked him out of a crowd of shoppers while passing by overhead towards Naruto's home, and immediately dropped down a little way behind him.

"Hey, Naruto. I heard you were looking for me?" Iruka said. It was gratifying to see that he could still sneak up on Naruto, and even more fun to watch him jump.

"Hi! Yeah, I wanted to tell you about my first real ninja mission!" Naruto had a look that Iruka had learned meant he was after something. "I'd love to tell you all about it, if we had some time and space to ourselves..."

"How about we go get some ramen again, then?" Iruka smiled as Naruto beamed. _If only everyone was so easily pleased, the world would be a better place. And if everyone were so transparent, that would help too._

As the pair walked towards the ramen stand Iruka had visited with Naruto before, he started to listen to everything that had happened since he'd left – Naruto's discussion with Shino, the boring as hell mission, the sudden danger (although it was unclear what had happened exactly, what with Naruto not being there), and Sakura's new temperament. That last one caused Iruka to stop walking.

"Are you sure? She doesn't want to have her ear fixed?"

"We were talking after training, and she said she wasn't supposed to be outside of the hospital yet. But she showed me and it's not that bad." Naruto pulled a face. "All right – _she_ thought it was fine. _I_ thought it looked weird and gross. But she doesn't want the doctors to repair it."

"I need to talk to her." When Naruto looked like he was about to disagree, Iruka tried to look even sterner than he already did. "Don't forget, I taught her as well as you. And she's not the only one with scars she doesn't want to have healed. It's probably not necessary but I want to make sure."

Naruto looked puzzled so Iruka pointed to the scar that stretched from one cheek to the other, cutting a notch into his nose in the process. "Where is she, do you know?"

"She went home after we trained together. Do you think she might need help?"

"I'm not sure. I'm going to have to put the ramen on hold for now, but we can get some later. Meet me there in two hours or soembarrassing don't know how long this will take. And it's better if Sakura and I have a private conversation."

Iruka remembered roughly where Sakura's parents lived and set off to talk to her. He focused on what she might have gone through to avoid remembering his own scarring experience. It was easier to keep it at arms' length; joke, deflect and project; avoid the turmoil and pain that recalling brought with it.

It was easy to get there. Taking to the rooftops was second nature for him by now, and with a few jumps and dashes, Iruka landed in front of Sakura's house. All the lights were off but he could hear faint sounds from inside.

He rang the doorbell and all noise stopped for a second.

He strained his ears, trying to pick up any sound, no matter how small. Barely detectable footsteps told him a lot about how paranoid Sakura was – she didn't feel safe even in her own home. She opened the door and he struggled not to gasp. He could barely recognise his ex-student. Here was a scared, scarred young woman instead of a happy and optimistic girl.

Even her clothes had changed. Her red dress was replaced with a loose brown-grey robe that she almost disappeared into, and her hair was concealed by a dark grey bandanna. Overall she looked like she was trying to hide. Iruka's eye caught on the one spot of colour – a bright red patch of shining skin, at the top of what remained of her right ear.

"Hello Sakura. I heard from Naruto what happened, and I wanted to talk to you."

"No thank you." Sakura tried to shut the door in his face, but Iruka blocked it with his foot.

"You don't have to talk, just listen to me." After Sakura didn't say anything for a few seconds, he swung the door back open.

"You're not the only person to keep a scar that could have been healed. Nowadays, Konoha's medics can fix anything except eyes and some internal organs, and they can often transplant those too, but there's plenty of people who want a reminder of a particular wound. Look at me." Sakura had been mostly staring at his feet so far, but she flicked her gaze up to his eyes for a moment – and caught on his scar, understanding spreading across her face.

"I almost drowned in my own blood. I don't like talking about it, but it's important that I don't forget about it, because that way I can make sure _it never happens again_. More than that, because I _know_ I won't forget – or rather _can't_ forget – I can relax and put it aside. It doesn't have to be at the forefront of my mind all the time, because I know that next time I look in a mirror I'll see the scar.

"That's why I kept it. That's why several of the other teachers have small scars, and some of the active ninja have larger ones. You've seen the jounin with half his face burnt off, right? He was working on a fire technique when he almost killed himself. For him, it's about not being reckless. For me, it's about being smarter, not just rushing in without a plan. Whatever your big lesson was, and however you want to remember it, just know this: you can put it aside for a moment, because you'll never lose it.

"Come here." Iruka wasn't sure when he'd started crying, or when Sakura had joined him, but they were both sobbing and hugging each other, drawn together by the shared loss of something undefinable.

-O-

When Team 7 met up for training the next day, there was one person missing. Kakashi had hoped that Sasuke would manage his problems on his own, as there wasn't really any advice he had other than 'get drunk and sleep around for a few years'. Regardless of how free a hand he technically had when it came to his team, saying that to impressionable young genin was the sort of thing that could get Kakashi into rather a lot of trouble. Now, however, he was faced with the unpleasant prospect of having to drag Sasuke to a therapist of some sort.

But first, he'd focus on Naruto and Sakura. After all, they were still lagging behind Sasuke, and needed his help more.

"Naruto! Pick up the pace. You're supposed to be running, not going for a walk in the park!" Truth be told, Kakashi was impressed by how much Naruto had improved _again_. Before the mission, he'd been much slower. It just went to show that sometimes this teaching thing could be quite easy. Naruto just needed to be pushed as hard as possible, and he'd keep up or die trying. Sakura, on the other hand...

"You can't just hide there forever, you know." She was in the bloody forest. Kakashi considered just leaving her to her own devices, since Sakura was doing everything she could to avoid following his training routine. "Come and run some more laps. And I mean _run_ , not jog half-heartedly and quit when you get tired. It's important to have proper conditioning if you want to be a strong ninja."

Sakura walked out, still in that strange camouflage outfit. Kakashi didn't see the point in it – any time she wanted to change her appearance, she could just use a transformation technique, so it didn't really make a difference when it came to hiding – but maybe it was psychological. He had no idea of what was normal for teenage girls, specifically teenage girls who'd recently been traumatised, so the best he could do was to try to make her a competent ninja and hope she sorted that emotional stuff out on her own.

As she paced after Naruto, who was racing around the grassy field and generally acting like an oversized puppy, he called after them. "I'm going to look for Sasuke. I think he might have gotten lost, or had to take a detour to avoid a black cat or something. Don't slack off, I'll know if you do!" Kakashi left a shadow clone behind to report back to him and dashed away.

He found Sasuke at home with a girl, and was half-tempted to wait for the most embarrassing moment to burst in. Kakashi thought he recognised her as one of Asuma's or Kurenai's lot – definitely a new genin, at least. She wasn't bad-looking for her age and Kakashi was torn between wanting to congratulate Sasuke and maybe get him some booze, and dreading the inevitable when Sakura found out.

Blondie, as he'd nicknamed her in his head, was eyeing Sasuke like a piece of meat. It was slightly off-putting to watch, especially with the way she was running her hands over his arms as she corrected his stance.

And then he realised that Sasuke was just training with her. He was using a single, longer sword instead of the two shorter blades he'd started with and she was guiding him through a rudimentary series of downward cuts and lunges. It was probably for the best overall, Kakashi thought, but he was still faintly disappointed in his student.

"Oi, Sasuke. You missed a team training session today." Kakashi was pleased with the way both of the genin jumped at that. He'd dropped down from the ceiling when they were both looking in the other direction, and hadn't made a sound when he landed. "Make sure it doesn't become a habit. Tomorrow we meet at dawn, so be there on time. We might be going on another mission."

And there it was. The slight tensing of the shoulders, the widening of the eyes. _Maybe if Sasuke used his bed for something other than sleeping he'd get this crap out of his system. Otherwise, he'll be a liability the next time there's any blood or corpses, and for a ninja that's a recipe for early retirement._

"Anyway, see you tomorrow. You two have a nice session together. And Sasuke, a longer sword doesn't help if you don't know how to use it." Kakashi smirked and waggled his eyebrows as he left. Sasuke was blushing heavily, while his blond companion didn't seem to notice the double entendre.

When he got back to his other two genin, Sakura had buggered off to do more genjutsu things in the trees. She'd stopped quietly not putting much effort in and was openly defying him now, but he didn't know how to call her on it while she was still so emotionally fragile. Naruto was playing some sort of keep-away with clones of himself and a small leather ball, and although he quickly pretended to have been hard at work with target practice when Kakashi showed himself, the memories of the shadow clone he'd left behind painted a very different picture.

"Naruto, do you remember what I told you?"

"You were going to look for Sasuke?"

"And after that?"

"You'd know if we didn't work hard?"

"Exactly."

"But I did! I ran around a load, and then I thought, 'Wouldn't it be better to practice changing direction at the same time' – you know, like in a real fight – and then I thought I could use my clones for that, but then I needed a target to run towards, and then things got out of hand a bit but it was training, honest!" Naruto looked rather like a puppy that had just had its ball taken away. Kakashi rolled the round leather toy around in his hand.

"You can have it back after training, _if_ you work hard."

Kakashi tended to think in dog metaphors anyway, but with Naruto, it was particularly common. Something about how warm and open he was, combined with his endless energy and enthusiasm (and his lack of sense, Kakashi had to admit to himself) just seemed very canine.

"Anyway, for now you get to do even more training! Isn't life great?" Kakashi motioned for Naruto to copy him, then dropped to the floor, ready to do some abdominal curls. "Try to keep up with me. You'll definitely have to surpass me if you want to get anywhere near to the Hokage's level, after all."

It was a cheap trick but it worked. As Kakashi almost effortlessly performed sit-up after sit-up, Naruto sweated and grunted and did his best to not fall behind. It was honestly impressive that he kept going for as long as he did, but eventually he collapsed backwards and stayed there. Sweat was glistening on his face.

"I'll get you one day, and then I'll make you do sit-ups until you puke. While I do twice as many with no problems and laugh at you!" It was impossible to keep Uzumaki Naruto down for long.

Kakashi chuckled as he picked a blade of grass and tossed it into Naruto's open mouth. "Well, you'll have plenty of spare time in the next week. We've got another mission lined up! And Sakura," he raised his voice, "you'll need to wear something suitable for civilians."

As she walked over out of the forest, he noticed that she was still weaving illusions around herself. Naruto hadn't seemed to notice her approach until his gaze swept right past her.

"What the fuck? There's a hole or something over there!" When Naruto realised where he was pointing, Kakashi had to bite back a laugh. Sakura wasn't the first person to try to become unnoticeable rather than invisible, but of the two or three he knew that had attempted it, none had succeeded. He hoped Sakura moved on sooner rather than later, or she'd fall even further behind Sasuke and be overtaken by Naruto.

"Stop messing around, you two. Sit down over here." Kakashi put as much authority as he could into his voice, and was pleased when both genin instantly did as they were told.

"We're going to be doing a mission tomorrow. I won't explain what exactly the plan is, as that will just make it harder for you to play your roles properly. We're going to be joining a caravan that passes through here on the way to Suna. I'll be the owner of the two carts we're using, and you'll be the children of my sister, who's sadly passed away. Yes, Naruto?" Kakashi stopped as Naruto raised his hand.

"What's she called?"

"Ummm..." There was one name in particular that Kakashi wanted to use, but it wasn't that great of an idea. Then again, he was a jounin – fuck it, there was only so much trouble he could get into. "Kushina. Her name is Kushina."

"Gotcha," Naruto said.

"If there are too many names to remember, someone will slip up. Do we call each other by our real names, or do we get fake ones?" Sakura asked, practical as ever. It was nice to see her use her brain – when Sasuke was around, she tended to contribute less.

"Everyone will use their real names, but don't mention your surnames if you can avoid it. Calling yourself an Uzumaki or Uchiha will instantly mark you as a ninja, so we're all going to be Haruno for the duration of the infiltration, if the subject comes up. Other than that, just make sure to share any details you have to invent with everyone else so our story adds up. But avoid talking about your past if you can. We won't be going that far with the caravan anyway. "

Naruto nodded, trying his best to look thoughtful. Sadly, his over-acting made it look more like a parody. Sakura giggled while Kakashi sighed. _Why did I think a subterfuge mission was a good idea?_


	5. Chapter 5

The second mission was even worse than the first.

They were all dressed as traders, and part of a large caravan to Wind country, and they'd been travelling for several days now, and Sasuke _still_ had no idea what they were supposed to be there for. At least the outpost resupply had had clearly defined objectives. He'd also been travelling faster than the slowest wagon in the slowest convoy in the whole Land of Fire.

Sasuke did his best to swallow his anger as he trudged along next to a foul-smelling donkey. The forced inactivity was starting to wear him down physically as well as mentally – he wanted to run, to jump, to push his body. Rather than blow his cover as a civilian, he turned his mind inwards, focusing on some meditation exercises he'd memorised before leaving Konoha. They were supposed to increase his spiritual chakra reserves, or else he wouldn't even bother trying them.

 _Deep breaths, let go of the present and just exist in the moment. Don't do anything, and don't try to exert your will._ Huffing, Sasuke gave up. The required mindset went against everything he wanted to achieve, even though he knew it would help him in the end. The strongest monks were equal to jounin in some ways, as they had vast stores of chakra built up by decades of enlightenment. If he could grab a quick and easy advantage by mimicking them a little, it would be worth it.

 _Happy, calm thoughts… here we go… I just have to rephrase everything…_

Long hot summer days made for wonderful travelling. They'd left Konoha's forests behind several days ago and were now in the middle of a huge sea of waist-high grass, with hills gently undulating towards the horizon. When he stood up on Kakashi's cart, he could see for miles and miles. Other than the sounds of the other travellers, only the faint cries of birds circling high above could be heard. Above all, it was peaceful.

Sasuke walked on for about half a minute, thoughts serene. Then he started coughing from the thick choking dust in the air, and his calm shattered. It was everywhere, rising in big reddish-brown clouds thrown up by the wheels of the wagons in front. Since he was walking almost at the back of the group, it was particularly pervasive, filling his mouth and nostrils with the taste of the earth.

When he next got the chance, he was going to take a long, long bath and wash all the fine grit out of his hair. Sasuke was pathetically grateful to Naruto for lending him a pair of goggles, but refused to admit it.

At the start of the mission, Sakura had been put in charge of the smaller second wagon that Kakashi had bought. Sasuke had switched with her, though.

"I'd rather pull my own hair out, strand by strand, than listen to your bickering for one more second," Kakashi had said. Sasuke assumed he'd been referring to Naruto's constant silly complaints rather than his own reasonable replies.

Naruto came over from the larger wagon, which was slowly rolling along twenty paces ahead of Sasuke's. _Please don't talk to me, please don't talk to me…_ he silently pleaded.

"Hello, Sasuke! How are you doing?" Naruto was as upbeat as ever. Sasuke thought the red-and-green striped handkerchief slung over Naruto's face made him look like the villain from a low-class play. But when Sasuke realised it was to keep out the dust, he instantly wished he'd thought of the idea first. On the other hand, he wasn't going to eat dirt for the rest of the journey out of pride, and resigned himself to following Naruto's lead.

"I'm fine." He rummaged in his bags for a few seconds before he found some cloth he could use to cover his mouth and nose. It was the work of a few seconds to fold it into a triangle and tie it over his face.

"Kakashi says we're carrying out the main goal of the mission tonight. Short version is that we're delaying one of the other merchants at the border with the Land of Wind by sneaking some contraband into his cargo. Kakashi's going to tip off the border guards tonight so they know where to look tomorrow, and he'll be held for a few days. It's so that a rival merchant can beat him to Sunagakure and make a lot of profit, apparently.

"Anyway, you're gonna be working with me and Sakura to smuggle the contraband into his wagons. We're planning it out this evening and striking at night."

"Right," Sasuke said. He deliberately turned back towards his donkey's rear, hoping to enjoy the (relative) solitude again. The silence had been wonderful so far – he'd spoken less than ten words today.

"Hey, Watanabe!" Naruto turned and called to another of the traders. "Is it time for lunch yet?"

 _Trust Naruto to make friends with absolutely everyone_. Sasuke hadn't talked to any of the other merchants or travellers, and he'd overheard two of them gossiping about whether or not he was mute. Sakura had also taken Kakashi's advice about keeping a low profile to heart. Naruto, on the other hand, knew the names of all twenty-odd people, and spent most of the day going from wagon to wagon and chatting. At least it meant he wasn't bothering Sasuke.

And other than steering the cart, Sasuke could gaze at the fields or sky as much as he wanted. Which was not at all. He hadn't expected to miss Konoha so much, but the outside world seemed incredibly _boring_ in comparison.

He pushed his feelings down and slouched a little as he strolled onward. _I wonder what Ino's doing right now?_ Loud laughter broke him out of his daydreams as Naruto came running past, chasing some random girl from another cart. It seemed they were both having a great time, although Sasuke doubted Naruto was smart enough to realise the girl wanted to be caught.

-O-

Sakura really enjoyed the team atmosphere during meals. While Naruto was still off making friends with everyone, the rest of Team Seven were eating together in companionable silence. It was relaxing in a way that trudging over baked earth or rattling along in a rickety wagon could never be. She yawned, the midday heat making her tired. Since there weren't any trees to intercept the sun, it was much warmer out on the plains.

She'd run out of new things to say after just a few hours on the road, and Kakashi had been quiet since they'd set off. _Not that that's unusual for him._ Sasuke had calmed down now that he was left on his own, which was good, kind of. She was definitely glad he was feeling better, but she wished he was a bit friendlier. Sakura still hoped that she'd really connect with him some day. Right now, though, it seemed he didn't want to open up.

It was interesting, however, to see Naruto make some friends for once. He didn't really get on with anyone in Konoha, although it seemed to be mutual from what she could tell. It was probably because of all the mischief he'd done as a kid. Maybe they didn't have a sense of humour? That thing with the feathers, red paint, indoor fireworks and complete set of ninja theory books had been amazingly creative and Iruka's face had been marvellous, even if a whole lesson had had to be cancelled due to the cleanup.

She looked two wagons over to where Naruto was talking and eating at the same time. Somehow, it wasn't bothering the elderly couple sharing their food with him – Sakura could see their smiles from here. She finished her own meal of rice and pickled vegetables and lied back in the grass to relax for a moment. Kakashi was still eating slowly next to her, slipping food between the bandages over the lower half of his face. He still hadn't let anyone see what he looked like under his mask. Sakura shouldn't have been surprised that he had a variety of disguises for his face - she really shouldn't - but she'd been looking forward to solving the mystery that was under Kakashi's mask. Maybe at some point in the future, she hoped.

Sasuke shook her awake just as the first carts were setting off again. After shaking off her disorientation, she jumped up and walked over to Kakashi. She mumbled some thanks to Sasuke and slid into her seat, ears burning. That she'd dreamed of him definitely didn't help. Sasuke went back to his own cart, which was ready to set off, and she was unusually grateful for his silence.

Sakura hadn't been sleeping well lately, but she hadn't thought she was tired enough to fall asleep during the day. At the start of the mission, she'd thought she could handle it; but slowly, torturously slowly, the pressure had built. Now, every minor twitch felt like it could ruin her cover story, and she'd be the reason everything went wrong. Her self-confidence was in tatters. She pulled her hands back from where they'd crept, unbidden, to the knives hidden in her dress.

Her palms were damp with sweat and her back was straight with the tension running through her. Did she look too nervous? She tried slouching forward a little, but that was just plain uncomfortable and felt forced. Nonchalance was _hard_. She was reaching for her knives again, she realised.

"So." Kakashi interrupted her thoughts without looking up from his book. Sakura had noticed within two minutes of him pulling it out that it was not, in fact, a cookbook. Pleasures of the flesh also had nothing to do with fruit – except for chapter seven, of course… At least it would be funny when Sasuke and Naruto realised they'd been tricked. At first, she'd tried to ignore Kakashi's choice of reading material, but after several hours of nothing to do, even pointless smut was entertaining enough to hold her attention.

What made it worse was that he knew she was reading over his shoulder – he was a jounin, there was no way he didn't know – and she knew he knew, and _he knew she knew he knew,_ and… but she refused to go any deeper. Mind games with Kakashi required a certain kind of madness, and if you didn't have it to start with, you'd end up really messed up. Sakura had met Guy. Apparently, he'd once been a normal jounin who'd repeatedly challenged Kakashi and lost.

She'd not replied yet. Sakura knew from experience that Kakashi would wait as long as it took for her to say something; he was _really_ prickly when it came to status games like that, despite his relaxed exterior. "What?" There, that was nice and non-specific.

"Neither of us wants to do this, but it's necessary. Let's talk about what happened when your ear was injured." Kakashi's single visible eye was still fixed on his book, but Sakura felt his attention shift onto her. Despite having most of his face hidden by bandages, he looked relaxed and at ease. She… didn't.

 _Shit. Maybe if I just stay quiet…_ Sakura breathed out and unclenched her fists. When had they balled up again? She couldn't afford to show that sort of emotion while she was undercover. _That must be why Kakashi picked_ now _to talk about it. Stupid prick._ There was comfort to be found in crude language, but she'd never used it out loud. Sometimes she felt like two different people sharing a single body.

"I know you're listening, so I'll just read out loud until you're ready to talk. 'Tatomi gently pressed her heaving bosom against–'"

"–Fine." Sakura made sure she went through a few rude gestures at Kakashi before carefully folding her hands in her lap. She took a deep breath, trying and failing to centre herself. "What specifically do you want to talk about?"

"You're not the girl who froze up and took a knife to the face. Look at yourself – you're competent, calm, collected. Well, relatively. Despite being injured on your first mission, you're not noticeably traumatised. And yet, you were a complete mess. You could have killed every prisoner in that group, just with a kunai. Any genin could have. What happened?" Kakashi's expression hadn't changed at all, and he was still staring at his book with his uncovered eye.

"I wasn't paranoid enough. I thought I was safe, and took an unnecessary risk. And I learned the hard way what a bad idea it was. Now I won't ever make the same mistake again." Sakura touched her ruined ear; it had started as a way to cope with nerves, but now it was just another habit.

"All it took was a flower by the roadside to distract you. But you're wrong, you know." Kakashi blinked once, slowly, then reached out and plucked a long stalk of grass from next to the road. He slipped the stem through the bandages on his face and bit down on it. The other end twitched back and forth as he turned a page.

That was all it had taken, yes. There weren't many flowers growing in the forest, and Sakura had been curious. The mysterious scroll she'd received had had a picture of a similar plant, and apparently it had a very strong and pleasant aroma. And so – for a split second – Sakura had been an almost fifteen-year-old girl rather than a genin of Konohagakure, and her guard had been down. And she'd paid for it.

 _But what did Kakashi mean? I'm_ wrong _?_

Kakashi responded to her quizzical glance. "It messed you up. You don't sleep well, and you make mistakes. You shouldn't have fallen asleep earlier – sure, it makes your cover deeper, but that was never an issue. It's an unnecessary risk, and you're so obsessed with avoiding them that it's blinded you."

"It wasn't a risk – it was the opposite of a risk! You're a jounin, so I'm safer sleeping next to you than… oh. What should I do?" Sakura hated being helpless, but even worse than that was _staying_ helpless. Kakashi pointing out things that she should have noticed on her own wasn't fun either. Unfortunately, he had a point. She didn't feel safe sleeping on her own.

"Don't worry about this mission. While I'm there, I can keep an eye on you. When we get back, go and talk to someone about it – your parents might not be the best choice, but if you feel comfortable with them it can work. A friend or someone else you trust is probably the best option." Kakashi nodded to himself, then slightly tilted the book so Sakura could see it better. It was a pretty clear message that the conversation was over.

 _How useless._ Sakura had already talked to Iruka, and this was how she was doing _afterwards_. Kakashi had some serious strengths, but mental health wasn't one of them. He was much better at causing problems than fixing them. The thing that would help her the most was figuring out where the strange notes had come from.

-O-

Naruto grinned as he walked over towards Morato's tent, a huge pale thing in the moonlight. The trader owned a full half of all the goods in the caravan, but acted like a massive tool. This would be just like a classic prank. In one hand he carefully carried a large glass bottle, and in the other was a bag with some snacks and a small knife hidden at the bottom.

"Hey Masaharu, Kiho! How've you been doing?" The two guards sat in front of the circle of carts, watching a small fire. A spear leant casually next to the tall blond man – Masaharu – while Kiho had a short sword belted to her waist.

"Sorry, Naruto, we can't hang tonight. Gotta look after the big man's stuff, ya know?" Masaharu said. Kiho nodded, her short dark hair flopping about. She pulled a cigarette out of a pouch and lit it on the burning end of a branch from the fire. Naruto wasn't too discouraged. He'd built a decent rapport with both of them, despite the four-year age gap. And besides, he wasn't trying to lure them away from their posts.

Naruto waved the bottle at them as he sat down next to Kiho, making sure to leave some space. She didn't like him as much, and he wanted to avoid being confrontational. "Yeah, yeah, he's got lots of money and stuff. Tell me something I don't know. But surely he can't object to me keeping you company? Extra set of eyes, and all that?" He grinned widely as he shook the bottle again, the contents sloshing noisily.

The two guards shared a quick look, then Kiho shrugged. _Jackpot._ If she didn't object, then Masaharu would definitely be on board. Naruto uncorked the bottle and took a quick swig, sputtering as the alcohol burned his mouth and throat. He passed it along with a grimace as they laughed at him. "First time with a real drink for the young boy, eh?" Masaharu grinned. Naruto gave him the finger.

He actually felt like cheering, and maybe dancing a little, at his success. When he'd volunteered for the hardest part of the job, he'd thought Kakashi would pass him over in favour of Sasuke. Finding out that he just had to occupy the guards was a bit of a let-down, but then again, it was also really fun. Kakashi had even trusted him with some alcohol, although Naruto knew if he actually got drunk there'd be hell to pay.

Kakashi's general laziness just meant he was even more terrifying when he wanted to be.

As the three of them chatted quietly around the fire, occasionally laughing and nudging each other, Naruto felt a slight sense of shame at taking advantage of their friendliness. However, Team Seven weren't going to steal anything, so he wasn't exactly breaking their trust _as such_ , just misleading them.

The bottle lasted barely half an hour. Masaharu pulled a jug of wine out that he'd been saving, face very red in the firelight, and Kiho cheered. Naruto stumbled to his feet, muttering about taking a leak, then walked a short distance into the grass. He tripped slightly and swore, before finding the spot.

"Sasuke," he hissed. "They're pretty drunk, you and Sakura can go in now."

"Okay." The bastard had basically ignored him for the whole mission, but now he'd be depending on Naruto's skill to keep the guards occupied. _Take that, you lousy git!_

"What the fuck are you doing?" Sasuke was still whispering but sounded really angry all of a sudden. Naruto turned towards his voice, then remembered himself halfway through, and kept urinating forwards. "Needing to pee was supposed to be your _cover story_ , remember? You almost splashed me just now."

"I had a lot to drink." Business done, Naruto went back to the fire and the guards.

Masaharu was teasing Kiho about her boyfriend, whom she'd left back home. She, in turn, was threatening to castrate Masaharu if he didn't shut up. Naruto did his best to defuse the tension. "I didn't know you had a boy-toy? What's he like, is he a guard too?"

"Nah, he's a Suna ninja. Actually–" Masaharu cut Kiho off with a shorthand motion.

"Someone's there."

Heart hammering, Naruto butted in. "How can you tell? I can't hear anything except the wind." He _had_ heard Sakura brush against the edge of a wagon, but that should have been inaudible for civilians. Which meant, Naruto realised with slowly mounting dread, that he wasn't dealing with civilians. His heart was in his throat as he casually picked up his bag, ready to take out his knife.

"Appearances can be deceiving, you know," Masaharu said. "It might impress you to know that we're actually two of Sunagakure's finest." He leant heavily on his spear, clearly drunk, but turned towards the earlier sound again with narrowed eyes. Naruto winced as he heard a quiet thudding sound from the circle of carts. The two Suna ninja tied on their headbands. Naruto was horrified and, although he realised how ridiculous it was, he felt betrayed by them.

"I definitely heard something that time," Kiho said, standing and stretching. "Probably just thieves, though. Let's go catch them."

"You're ninja, really? W-wow, that must really be something," Naruto stuttered. What was he going to do now? They were already heading towards his team-mates, carrying a torch along with them. If they got close enough, his team was screwed. _Not only are they ninja, but_ _c_ _hunin as well, if they're operating alon_ _e_ _outside Wind Country._

Of course Kakashi hadn't done his job properly. _Lazy asshole._ Kakashi should have paid attention instead of reading his recipe books all the time, and then he would have been able to warn them. The whole situation could have been avoided. Instead, he'd just said that Morato wouldn't be carrying around enough goods to be worth paying ninja guards, and told Team Seven to handle things on their own.

Naruto followed the ninja, taking care to stumble over the bottle they'd emptied already. _That should warn Sakura and Sasuke, but just to make sure…_ "Hey guys, wait for me!" he called.

Masaharu and Kiho both turned and motioned for him to stay back and be quiet. They crept over to a shallow depression in the grass, where the stalks had recently been flattened. Naruto knew it was the route Sasuke and Sakura must have taken. The odds of someone else also sneaking into the wagons at the same time were negligible.

Masaharu pointed his spear at the gap between the wagons where the trail ended. The steel tip was edged in shining silver. Opposite Naruto, blending into the shadows of the carts, Kiho loosely gripped her short-sword in her right hand. It was slightly curved, the blade glinting cruelly in the faint moonlight.

"Hey, guys, it's probably just someone being an idiot and playing around. Let's just make sure they didn't take anything and let them off with a warning, yeah?" Naruto whispered. It would be tough to talk their way out of this, but if Sasuke and Sakura played along, it could work. Since neither of them would have any stolen goods, the Suna-nin might just let them go. "I reckon-"

And that was when Sasuke dropped down from the _top_ of the cart, rolling forward into an overhead axe kick that broke Masaharu's collarbone with a loud cracking sound. His spear fell from his twitching fingers, his right arm hanging uselessly at his side, but Masaharu swiftly drew a kunai with his left hand. Sasuke was already moving, lashing out with a series of quick and sweeping knife attacks. He drove Masaharu back and landed a few shallow cuts, barely staying ahead of his opponent's weapon. Naruto froze, watching the two ninja dance silently in the waist-high grass.

And then Kiho turned to Sasuke's unprotected back. Before Naruto could interfere, they both heard a whisper of cloth against wood from the gap in the carts that warned Kiho of Sakura's approach.

Naruto didn't even get a chance to cry out before Kiho's short-sword lanced into Sakura's face. It went up to the hilt, and didn't stop there, her whole hand piercing through Sakura's head. Then the illusion destabilised and dispersed into grey wisps of chakra-laden smoke. The real Sakura was about two paces behind her clone, completely unharmed and absolutely furious.

There was a moment of confusion – blades, fists, narrow misses and the sickening thud of a solid kick connecting. Sakura hit the side of the cart. She clutched her ribs and spat a mixture of blood and saliva at her foe's feet. Kiho had somehow lost her sword, but she looked more than capable of wringing Sakura's neck with her bare hands. The two kunoichi faced off with matching snarls, neither willing to back down.

Naruto's heart hammered on in his chest – he'd thought Sakura was _dead_ , he'd seen her head split open like an overripe tomato. Five minutes ago, he'd been drinking with Kiho, who had just tried to kill his teammate. His breathing was loud enough that he could hear it even over the roaring in his ears. He dimly realised he was in shock, and forced himself to move.

His knife felt heavy in his hand, the rough grip and slightly pitted metal ring barely rubbing against his skin. He could hear cloth rustle behind him as Sasuke and Masaharu traded blows. Below him, grass whipped at his legs as he darted forward, the dirt underneath firm and unyielding. And he could taste acrid fear in the back of his mouth.

A handseal, a thought, a burst of chakra and then a pair of shadow clones rushed at Kiho from both directions. Kiho's face twisted into anger at the betrayal before she smoothed her features and demolished both clones with powerful punches. She charged him, slipping under a fistful of thrown shuriken and ploughing through the three clones he'd hastily thrown up.

When the smoke cleared, Naruto saw that she'd transformed herself into _him_. By the dim moonlight, he couldn't tell which of his three copies was actually her, and neither could his shadow clones. He grit his teeth in frustration and ended the technique. Two clones disappeared and the third pounced on him.

He backpedalled, dodging and blocking as best he could, but he took a heavy blow across the face that sent him sprawled out on the ground. Kiho leant over him, face dark with fury. Naruto couldn't block her second punch, and he felt his teeth rattle as his head snapped back again. She pulled back for a third blow, and he watched her fist through a haze of blood and pain and confusion – and she sighed, tiny drops of blood spraying out over Naruto's face. As she slumped backwards, he could barely make out the tip of a sword protruding from her chest. And suddenly he noticed Sakura, standing over the body, firmly holding the short sword she'd taken off Kiho earlier.

Sakura was smiling.

"I'm fine on my own," Sasuke hissed, clearly torn between trying to avoid alerting the nearby camp and getting his team's attention. "No need for any help, it's not like he's a _chunin_ or anything."

Naruto ran over, head still spinning slightly. Masaharu was down to a single arm, but he was faster and stronger than Sasuke. He'd accumulated some more light injuries, but Sasuke was visibly tired and wouldn't be able to keep up much longer. Their blades swung again, Masaharu lightly leaping forward and Sasuke heaving himself back and out of the way before countering with a stab to the face that barely missed.

Sakura threw a kunai that distracted Masaharu for a split second, and Naruto threw himself into a flying kick from the side. Masaharu spun out of the way, perfectly dodging the kick… and walked face-first into Sasuke's fist.

He collapsed, sprawling across the flattened grass and slowly staining it red. Sakura scrambled to tie him up, using loop after loop of ninja wire to make sure that he couldn't get free.

"What happened in there?" Naruto asked, voice warbling between a whisper and a shriek. "This was supposed to be _clean_ , quick and _quiet_. You didn't even give me a chance to talk us out of it before attacking!"

Sakura didn't say anything, didn't look at him. Sasuke's eyes were darker than the night around them. "There were people in the wagons, Naruto. That's why Morato paid for ninja guards. He's smuggling slaves into the Land of Wind."

-O-

Kakashi took that as his cue to step out of the shadows.

His team reflexively drew weapons again, before they recognised him and relaxed.

"Where the fuck _were_ you?" Sakura hissed.

Well, mostly relaxed, Kakashi thought. But that was probably the wrong thing to say. "Now, now, let's all calm down a bit. There's no need to get worked up–"

"-There's slaves in there," Sasuke said, his flat and emotionless voice more worrying than Sakura's obvious outrage.

Naruto cleared his throat. "What are we going to do about them? And also, we have a prisoner." He tilted his head towards Masaharu's trussed up body.

Kakashi took a moment to think, wordlessly shushing Sasuke when he tried to interrupt. Something had to be done, that much was certain.

"Here's the new plan. You three are going to follow a guide and get out of here, and I'll tidy everything up. You've dealt with a complication as well as could be expected, but this is a jounin-level problem now. I'll fill you in on everything after I catch up in a few hours."

They looked more than happy to leave it to him, and he didn't blame them. For their second mission outside Konoha to go so wrong was fairly bad luck, but none of them had been seriously hurt or killed.

Not that that had been likely. He'd been watching since Naruto first joined the guards at the fire. A little bit of combat practice would do them a lot of good, he'd thought. After seeing them fight, Kakashi was now seriously considering entering them for the Chunin Exams.

Then again, he'd seen Sakura take down Kiho. She'd enjoyed killing slightly too much. That sort of thing would stain her, he knew from experience. In some ways, it was a worse injury than a merely physical wound. He was almost certain that he and Sakura would need another little chat later on.

But that would have to wait. A quick set of handseals, and Pakkun sat in front of him, squashed nose sniffing the air curiously. "Take these three towards the Hairuja Forest. If there are other Konoha teams resting, join them. I'll be along shortly."

Pakkun nodded and set off. The three genin stared at his ambling form before Kakashi made a quick shooing gesture that sent them following after the pug.

Alone now, Kakashi got to work. A shadow clone that immediately dispelled itself passed some key information on. The copy of himself that was currently approaching the border outpost should be aware of the new plan, and all that left for him to do was prepare the scene for when the patrol arrived.

The living Suna ninja had seen and heard too much. It was regrettable, but Kakashi wouldn't risk any danger to Konoha or his team if he could avoid it. If Suna found out that Kakashi's team had killed one of their own, it would have serious long-term repercussions. They simply weren't strong enough to handle that international pressure. Yet.

Kakashi cut the man's throat, watching the blood drain out and not feeling anything.

He prepared the macabre scene with the two corpses available. Three would have been better, but he could make do. He'd seen – and been in – enough ninja fights to forge a believable battle to the death.

In the end, it was easier to make it look like a lover's quarrel than anything else, so he carefully loosened some clothes and added a few lipstick smears to the man. A sprinkling of a minor hallucinogenic that occasionally caused heightened aggression as a side-effect and nobody would look too closely. Border guards and the associated patrols were mostly concerned with stopping smugglers and making sure taxes got paid. They wouldn't be looking underneath the underneath.

And by the time that Suna tried to find out what had happened to their ninja, the trail would be beyond cold.

The next part was quite straightforward. Kakashi broke a hole in the side of one of the carts that held the slaves. They were bound and gagged so that they wouldn't make any noise, and the smell was dreadful – a mixture of human waste, unwashed bodies and putrid sweetness from untreated infections. Luckily, they were all asleep. When he saw that they were mostly children, Kakashi had to fight down an urge to slowly, ever so slowly torture Morato to death.

He could do it, he knew, but it would make this next part substantially harder. Normally, he tried to avoid extra bloodshed, but for this he would make an exception.

Kakashi added some finishing touches to the scene, then stepped back and screamed at the top of his voice. After a few seconds, he screamed again, although by then there were already people running towards him.

Morato was the first to arrive, since Kakashi was standing outside his circle of wagons, and he took great pleasure in laying the merchant out with a single blow. Hands grabbed him, holding him back, but he just nodded towards the hole in the wagon.

The other traders stopped restraining him once they saw what cargo Morato was carrying. One or two spat on the fallen man; others kicked at him.

And then Kakashi moved on to the next part of his act. "I came because my niece and nephews were missing, and I heard noises. The two guards were fighting, but my family must have seen the inside of the wagon and run away. I don't know where they've gone, but I've got to find them.

"Saze, you're a good man. Please take our carts to the border outpost and leave them there if I'm not back before the convoy moves on. It's not far now, but I need to go after my family. They're all I have left." Cover stories tended to work best with a kernel of truth, Kakashi reflected. Either he built his fake identity around some existing facet of his personality, or some part of the cover tended to be hard to shake off afterwards.

Saze nodded, still mostly in a daze, and Kakashi was satisfied that his part here was done. He poked around the grass for a few seconds, making a big show of trying to track, before following the trail that his team had left. Behind him, the voices of the various travellers in the caravan were growing louder as they discussed Morato's fate. In an hour or so, a patrol would come and take over the scene. The merchants would move on. And in a decade few people would remember what had happened.

But Morato would never move cargo again. Never again.. Kakashi smiled under his mask. It was rare that he got the chance to do unambiguous good.

He was impressed by his team's speed. They were almost at the forest's edge when he caught up with them. Rather than announcing himself right away, he shadowed them for a few minutes, trying to gauge their moods. Pakkun noticed him, of course, but he also knew better than to give his master's position away.

After five minutes of silence, Kakashi dropped down next to them. They were a few hundred metres into the forest by now, and all too glad to take a short break after the distance they'd covered.

Kakashi gave them a broad outline of what he'd done to cover the team's tracks. When they didn't return, their carts would go to the border. They'd pick them up in a few days, after the caravan was gone again, and hire someone to take them back to Konoha.

The mission was essentially over, and they had a few days to train in the forest. While Kakashi hadn't exactly expected cheering, the continued silence was starting to wear on him. "Any questions?" he prompted.

"What happened to Masaharu?" Naruto asked. He'd been the only one to get to know the Suna guards, Kakashi recalled.

"He slipped his bonds and attacked me. I was forced to kill him." The lie came easily. It was better for the genin not to know some things. They were still – despite the dried blood still on them – not ready to see the ugly face of necessity.

"Good." That came from Sakura. "Naruto, you didn't see what the inside of that cart was like. They deserved it. Both of them. Ten times over."

"They didn't know about it!" Naruto leapt to the defence of the two dead ninja. "…Did they, Kakashi? _Know_ , I mean?" His voice broke on the last word.

"If they knew and didn't turn Morato in, then it was a direct order from the Kazekage. But Suna has much better ways of smuggling contraband into their village. So no, they probably didn't know."

"They still helped it happen," Sasuke said.

Naruto was crying, big slow tears rolling down his face. "And what if we're in their shoes one day, Sasuke? We take on a mission where we guard something, and later it turns out that something was – a kidnapped child, or – bad drugs, like really awful, or something."

They were all silent for a moment, and then Naruto spoke again. "She had a boyfriend in Suna. He'll never know what happened to her. You did what you had to do, Sakura. I don't blame you. We helped all those poor captured people, which is good and important. But, I wish… I wish there'd been another way – a better way."

-O-

A/N: This chapter is very different from the original, and the next chapter should be too.


	6. Chapter 6

Sakura woke up relaxed and refreshed. The sky was almost unbearably blue and she heard birds chirping in the trees.

"Nice to see you're not sleeping the _whole_ day away," Sasuke said, but she could tell from his tone that he didn't really mean it. Perhaps he was still off-balance because of yesterday's events, she realised, holding back a giggle. Who'd have thought that Sasuke would be more affected than her?

"I figured I couldn't leave you three without supervision any longer," Sakura replied, grinning. "Hey, Naruto, Kakashi, are you guys around?"

"Yup," Kakashi said quietly from _right behind her_ and for crying out loud, why did he have to keep doing that? "After breakfast, let's have another little chat, alright? Just to make sure you're doing okay."

"I'm _fine_. Honestly, you need to just relax a bit." Sakura took a deep breath, enjoying the faint smell of forest, but he kept watching her with one inscrutable eye. "Oh! You mentioned breakfast, right?"

"Over here," Naruto called from next to a small campfire. It was some sort of bland porridge, but after she added nuts and dried fruit she quite enjoyed it. She scarfed down the first bowl but took her time with the second.

"You're chirpy today," Sasuke remarked.

"Yes, she is," Kakashi said. "And our conversation will have to wait, because in about two minutes we'll be getting visited by Team Eight."

"How do you know?" Sakura asked.

Kakashi's face was a stern mask. "Beyond a certain point, it's futile to ask how a jounin knows something."

Naruto snorted. "Cut the crap. If you don't want to tell us, just say so."

"In that case... I smell one adult and three children in the forest over there. Their position and speed tell me when they'll arrive. Two smell like women, and another is an Inuzuka with a dog. There's only one squad like that in Konoha."

"Wow." Naruto spoke for all three of them in that moment, Sakura thought.

"Now ask yourselves this: if I can know all that over such a distance, how much do I know about you three?" Kakashi smiled behind his mask. "Sometimes it's better not to ask questions. You might get answers, after all."

They waited in silence after that.

"Yo!" Kiba shouted as he leapt into the centre of their camp. "Fancy meeting you lot out here."

"Hey Kiba," Naruto said, his face like a sunbeam. The rest of Kiba's team landed around him, Akamaru perching on his head. "Hey Hinata, Kurenai, Akamaru... Shino."

Sakura smiled shyly at them. She didn't know any of them that well, since she'd been mostly focused on Ino and Sasuke at the Academy, but she could at least match names to faces. Kurenai's appearance was new to her, though. The jounin looked fairly young and vaguely maternal, like a cool aunt or something. It was also _completely unfair_ how pretty she was, to the point that her face was almost like a painting.

Kurenai and Kakashi glanced at each other, and then Kakashi clapped his hands. "Right! That's enough catching-up. Today, you genin are all going to learn a very valuable skill, and that's how to climb trees."

Kurenai raised her hand to silence Naruto and Kiba, who had both started babbling about how they already knew how to climb trees, they were really good ninja, and so on and so forth. "Observe." She strolled towards the nearest large tree, a smooth conifer free of branches, and continued walking at the same unhurried pace up the side of the trunk. "The trick is–"

"–Now that's pretty cool!" Kiba shouted over her. Sakura expected him to get yelled at, but Kurenai just smiled serenely.

"Now you lot try," Kakashi said, pulling his book out of a pocket. "Good luck."

Kurenai gestured them all closer to her, rolling her eyes at her fellow jounin. "Here's some advice. Focus your chakra into your feet – use a hand seal to help, if you like – and stick your feet to the treetrunk to walk up. If you overload the technique it will blow up in your face, literally. And running up can help you get higher."

Sakura already felt like she was walking on air, and she wasn't surprised in the slightest when she took two, three, four steps up the tree, and kept going. It got easier as she climbed. A little chakra to reinforce her back and stomach, and she didn't even need to tense her muscles. She reached the top and turned around to see six shocked faces.

Kakashi simply nodded, unconcerned. "Kurenai, I would appreciate it if you took Sakura aside and gave her some genjutsu guidance. She's obviously talented when it comes to chakra manipulation." When Kurenai agreed, Sakura strode back down the tree, trying to ignore the stares from the other genin.

"Way to go, Sakura!" Naruto said, patting her on the back as she walked past.

As she followed Kurenai a short way into the trees, she heard Kakashi telling the others to get back to practising unless they wanted to fall even further behind her. She blushed a little at the thought of Sasuke seeing her as a worthy rival, but at the same time she wanted him to _like_ rather than challenge her.

They found a few boulders to sit on, and Kurenai started talking – lecturing, really – about genjutsu. "Genjutsu is the manipulation of someone else's chakra pathways to induce phantom images, or the creation of non-solid chakra constructs that project those images physically. These two disciplines are... yes, Sakura?"

Sakura lowered her hand again. "Um, I already know all this. I'm not a complete novice."

"Then show me what you can do." Kurenai said shortly. Sakura realised she should have been a bit more diplomatic with her interruption.

She formed the necessary handseals for her own illusion, the one that had allowed her to sneak up on the female chunin yesterday. The one that was supposed to keep her safe. Since she'd experimented on Naruto, it had slowly become more potent, although she knew she could do more to perfect it.

Sakura sent out thin strands of chakra that landed, feather-soft, on her target, where they manipulated Kurenai's senses to divert her attention away. It didn't work on the jounin, of course. Sakura wasn't that capable – yet, anyway. Kurenai kept looking straight at her, and after a few seconds, Sakura felt the technique break. She wasn't sure how it had been dispelled; it was a completely different way of countering illusions, like gently brushing aside her chakra without having to really touch it, and Kurenai hadn't even needed handsigns.

"That was definitely interesting, to say the least. I assume you're trying to conceal yourself?"

Sakura nodded, brow furrowed. It was almost as though Kurenai had severed the connection, which should have been impossible... unless she could see the chakra. Their eyes met, green against red, and Sakura thought she understood.

"And I'm guessing it isn't working properly?"

Sakura nodded again. "I can do it if it's only one person, and if they're not already paying attention to me, but otherwise it only distracts them. I'm not really sure how to improve it from there."

"I'm fairly sure you won't find a way to improve it." Kurenai smiled sympathetically. "It's not something that–"

"–In that case, I'll _make_ a way," Sakura interrupted, and found she meant it. In that moment, she would have happily taken on the entire world. Her confidence was filling her up to the point that it overwhelmed her nervousness at talking over her tutor, which was a heady feeling.

But Kurenai laughed, a free and happy sound, and Sakura scowled. The last thing she wanted was more doubts. "Don't look so offended, please. That wasn't aimed at you. It's just that you remind me of, well, _me_ when I was younger. By all means, make a way. I'd love to see it if you manage it. But there've been a lot of attempts in the past, and no-one's figured out a way to get that particular trick to work. There are invisibility techniques, hiding techniques, camouflage techniques... but they all have counters, like the Byakugan. Theoretically, you could get the human mind to not notice you at all. In practice, it doesn't work that way." Kurenai shrugged, as though she hadn't just ruined Sakura's hopes of safety.

"I guess it does seem incredibly strong. It's almost unrealistic, in a way." Sakura was sinking back down to earth now, and she hated losing that sense of weightlessness. Why couldn't she just get an instant win technique while she was still a genin? Then she realised she was starting to sound like Naruto. She shuddered.

"Which is why it's worth pursuing, despite how hard it would be to achieve." Kurenai continued without a trace of a smile. being serious now, vermilion eyes staring out of a ghostly face and seemingly straight into Sakura's soul. Sakura wondered whether that was also at least partially a genjutsu. "You know the main weakness of genjutsu – to properly spoof someone else's senses, either you need to be really familiar with the fake image or see it as you make it."

"And so if I wanted someone to think they were tied up, I'd need to put the same illusion on myself. So that I also feel all the little details, and make sure they're right," Sakura said. Going over Academy lessons, even advanced lessons, was a complete waste of time. She already knew all this, and Kurenai should know that. Sakura had expected much more from a jounin genjutsu specialist.

Kurenai continued talking."Unless you're so familiar with your illusion that you no longer need that crutch, that's basically correct. Imagine if you made someone think they were chained up, but the metal had the texture of wood. They'd immediately know it wasn't real." Sakura forced down the urge to roll her eyes, and kept listening, looking for scraps of meaning she might have missed the first time around.

"But if you hide yourself, it's not a double-edged sword. You care about seeing _them_ , and they care about seeing _you_ , so the symmetry is broken. You understand?"

"I... think so," Sakura said. Either Kurenai was talking about something completely obvious, or Sakura was entirely missing some complex detail. She'd have to think about it some more.

Kurenai grinned. "Don't worry, you'll figure it out eventually. And I can definitely give you some broader help with genjutsu, even if this particular project of yours isn't likely to bear fruit anytime soon. For example, there are a few tricks to getting smoke to look right..."

-O-

"This is _hard_ ," Naruto whined. No, he corrected, he wasn't whining. He was the future Hokage and he was giving a slacking jounin some valuable feedback on his training regimen. "Can't we do something better?"

He took another run at his stupid tree, with its stupid bark and stupid trunk and stupid leaves, and managed a mere five meters before sliding off. At least he was making steady progress, even if it was slow.

"You planning on giving up?" Kiba taunted from the next tree along. His best run so far was only half a foot higher than Naruto's, and Naruto noted with bitter satisfaction that he was closing the gap.

"Naruto never gives up!" Hinata shouted. She was slightly further away, but flinched away and hunched her shoulders as everyone turned to look at her. She was near the top of her tree but was struggling with a particularly smooth part of the trunk.

Naruto grinned at her. "You've got that much right. I'm gonna make it to the top, and that's a guarantee." He tried once more, getting another step higher before he lost control and tumbled down again.

"Maybe you're right, Naruto," Kakashi said. He turned another page of his book and sipped from a bottle he'd seemingly pulled out of thin air. "Why don't we have a friendly little spar?"

"Sounds fun," Kiba said. Akamaru barked in agreement. Naruto had no idea how much the dog actually understood, but it was probably at least as smart as Kiba. Then again, most dogs were. Shino seemed in favour as well, and even Sasuke looked interested.

"Since Sakura isn't here, we'll do some one-on-one fights. Who's the best at taijutsu on Team Eight?"

Shino and Hinata both turned to look at Kiba. "Definitely me," he boasted, clearly proud of his team's silent endorsement.

"Sasuke, you can go against him. No ninjutsu, no genjutsu, no weapons and no serious injuries. Stay in the clearing. Now start."

Naruto wandered over to Hinata as he studiously avoided looking at Shino. He wasn't talking to the bastard, and in a moment he'd hopefully get to pummel him. Meanwhile, Sasuke and Kiba circled one another, neither willing to move without an advantage.

"So how've you been?" Naruto asked. Hinata startled, clearly not noticing his approach.

Kiba darted forward, and Sasuke stepped back – once, twice – and grabbed Kiba's fist, flipping him back and flat onto the ground. Kiba bounced back to his feet, seemingly unhurt, although Naruto had heard all the breath _whoosh_ out of him.

"I've been fine, mostly. I want to learn some medical techniques soon. And you?"

Sasuke kicked Kiba in the face but took a punch to the ribs in exchange. They grappled for a few seconds, each trying to get a firm grip on the other, then broke apart.

"Yeah, I'm feeling good, ya know? Like, it's a nice day, I get to watch Sasuke take a few hits, and I don't have to act like a civilian anymore. It's sunny, too." And it was true. He really did feel better and yesterday's events seemed a lifetime away, as if they belonged to a completely different Naruto. He felt hungry all of a sudden. "Hey, why are Kurenai's eyes so weird?"

Kiba launched into a jumping kick, which Sasuke blocked with both hands. They traded punches, neither landing a solid blow as Sasuke steadily pushed Kiba back into a corner. Both were breathing heavily now, but Sasuke seemed in better shape.

"I-I don't know... It's a technique she uses, I think. Maybe she makes more blood flow through her eyes? That might make them stronger?"

Naruto laughed. "Maybe. I have no idea, really. It's just strange because the rest of her looks so pretty."

"Oh," Hinata mumbled, hands fidgeting in her lap.

Sasuke stumbled and Kiba took the bait, darting forward to take advantage of the fake opening. Sasuke swept his legs out from under him and sent him tumbling. Kiba landed on his face with Sasuke sitting on top of him, ready to rain down punches if needed.

"Sasuke wins," Kakashi declared, sounding bored. "Naruto and... Hinata can fight next."

"What?" Naruto shouted, hands curling into fists at his sides, face flushing red. "I want to fight Shino! He and I have unfinished business!"

"That's another reason to put you against Hinata." Kakashi looked at him like he was an idiot. "I want to see some nice practice here, not a schoolyard feud you haven't put behind you."

"Fine," Naruto muttered with a scowl. "Come on, Hinata. I don't want to hurt you, but I won't go easy on you."

"I should hope not, that would defeat the point." Kurenai walked back into the clearing, Sakura trailing along behind her. "Hinata, this is your chance to impress us. And impress Naruto as well."

The whole situation was infuriating. He was still angry at Shino, and now he couldn't even work out some stress by beating him up. Besides, Sasuke had won _his_ fight, so if Naruto didn't win now, the bastard would have indirectly beaten him. Again.

"Hurry up, Naruto. And don't embarrass Team Seven." Sasuke was clearly back to his usual irritating self. Naruto bit back a choice insult. _I'll show him_.

Naruto and Hinata faced each other in the middle of the dirt arena. Kakashi had at least put his book away now that Kurenai was back. She was looking disapprovingly at his drink, though. "Same rules – pure taijutsu, stay in the ring, don't injure each other. Go."

Immediately, Naruto focused on Hinata's feet. Those would move before any real attack started, he knew. She sunk into a low stance and made a weird handseal, even though it was supposed to be a taijutsu-only fight. Her eyes bugged out and he took a half-step back in surprise. Nobody else said anything, so he assumed it was allowed for some reason. He could feel the weight of the watchers' stares on his back.

He raised his hands into fists, setting one leg in front of the other. Hinata was quite weak, he remembered from the Academy, so Naruto decided to end the fight quickly. He leapt forward, whipping his back leg around in a powerful kick – and Hinata swayed backwards, letting it pass by. Her hand lashed out, slapping his calf and sending a powerful jolt into his leg.

"What the hell, that was definitely chakra!" he shouted, testing his leg. It burned and was going slightly numb, but it still bore his weight.

Sakura answered his unspoken question. "It counts as taijutsu. It's juken, the traditional Hyuga taijutsu style, that they use because of their bloodline." She frowned at him as he rubbed his leg, trying to get the worst of the pain out.

"Are you okay?" Hinata asked gently, and that bit of pity pushed him just a bit too far.

"I'm fine," Naruto snapped. "Let's get back to it."

After she nodded, he circled her slowly. She turned on her heel, keeping him in her sights. Rather than risk being slowly whittled down, he resolved to end the fight with the next exchange of blows. Her hits hurt like hell, but they didn't completely cripple him, so he would just have to power through the pain.

He stepped forward, feinted a kick to Hinata's stomach and instead slammed his foot into the side of her lower thigh, under her guard. She cried out and fell back, and he pushed forward, punching out. _So far, so good._ She blocked the first blow and he felt the sting again, biting back a flash of pain and anger.

His other fist followed through with a heavy blow that stretched her out on the floor.

In total, it had taken Naruto less than five seconds to overpower her, but his left arm dangled uselessly at his side. Hinata was unconscious, an ugly bruise already developing on her cheek. She looked so small as she lay sprawled in the dirt.

The victory felt bittersweet.

"I was going to suggest pitting our teams against each other, but it's probably for the best if Hinata sits this one out," Kurenai said with a dirty look at Naruto.

"She'll be fine," Kakashi drawled. "It's not a serious injury, anyway. She'll ache for a few days but that's all. Like as not, it'll teach her to keep her guard up properly."

That only made Naruto feel worse. "I'll take a break too, I can't feel my leg and my arm doesn't work properly," he volunteered, helping a dizzy Hinata to her feet. He took her hand and she flinched back, just a little. It felt like a punch in the gut.

Kiba scowled at him as he took Hinata's other side. "You've done _quite_ enough. I'll take it from here."

And so Naruto ended up next to Kakashi. A quick 'good job' from Sasuke and a half-hearted 'at least you won' from Sakura, and they moved off to face Shino and Kiba.

"I didn't mean to really hurt her," he told Kakashi as they watched the fight start. "I just got angry. But it's not like I did something I shouldn't have done, either."

Sasuke and Sakura were attempting to surround Shino and Kiba, but it was proving almost impossible. Kiba, at least, was faster than both of them.

Kakashi leant forward, beckoning Naruto close. "Do you want to know why I arranged the spar?"

Naruto nodded.

"So, to get the obvious out of the way – chances to spar against new ninja aren't incredibly common, so it's a good idea to talk advantage of them when they come up. More than that, though, I saw you were all having issues with the tree-climbing.

"So you know that meditation improves chakra capacity, as does physical exercise. Chakra is a combination of two energies, after all, and if you improve one of them then the end result is better. Physical energy increases pretty steadily as you train your body, but when it comes to mental energy, some experiences 'train' it much better than others."

This was a whole new side to Kakashi that Naruto had never seen before. His visible eye sparkled as he lectured away, clearly enjoying himself.

"Meditation is one example, but fighting – especially against other ninja – is the single best way to improve your chakra capacity. In general, more mental energy also makes the chakra easier to control. Right now Team Seven has improved this the most out of any team that graduated this year. I know for a fact that none of the other teams have had any combat experience, while Team Seven has fought a life-or-death battle against two chunin. And that was without me around, either.

"And that's one of the secrets of chakra. You can see why Konoha doesn't tell everyone – if Sasuke, for example, knew how much his strength could go up if he picked fights all the time he'd do some really stupid things. But I know I can trust you with this because you'll put the information to good use."

 _This_ was what he'd imagined a jounin teacher to be like when he'd first graduated, and the lack of earth-shattering secrets and mystical lore had left him a little bit disappointed. But now he was being trusted with some seriously powerful knowledge. He grinned, feeling the sun on his face.

"So this spar will help us all get better at tree climbing faster?" _And I didn't knock out Hinata for no reason other than being annoyed?_

"More than that, it will make you better ninja. In the long run, it'll keep you all alive."

-O-

Sasuke spat out a mouthful of saliva and dirt. Sakura helped him up and he nodded at Kiba and Shino, not trusting himself to speak. The fight had gone poorly, with Sakura getting in his way (and, he admitted in the privacy of his own thoughts, him getting in hers). Team Eight minus Hinata, on the other hand, had been impressively coordinated and thoroughly countered him at every turn.

In the end, he and Kiba had reversed their roles - Sasuke was pinned down and Kiba sat on him, whistling cheerfully. Sasuke wasn't happy about it, to say the least.

Sakura was also uncharacteristically angry, complaining about how she couldn't use any of her strengths, and physical spars were for muscle-headed idiots, and so on. He agreed that she was pretty useless in a physical fight, but that was because she refused to put the work in to get better. Shino had been pathetic as well, so it wasn't like she was at a big disadvantage anyway. And 'muscle-headed idiots' – it was as if she'd never seen a real taijutsu master!

"Let's have a break," Kakashi called, moving off into the forest. Kurenai followed him, presumably to discuss something, while the two teams each formed their own three-man circle on opposite sides of the clearing.

Sasuke tuned out Naruto's inane questions about Hinata's eyes and Sakura's exasperated answers. Clearly, despite being weaker individually , Team Eight had something that Team Seven did not. And after his humbling experience with the chunin yesterday, he'd feel a lot better if he could rely on his team more. He'd had a moment of pure terror – just a moment, but it had been bad enough – when he realised that his opponent would outlast him and that he had to rely on Naruto and Sakura to rescue him.

Luckily they'd pulled through, but he didn't want to rely on luck again.

He left the clearing, looking for Kakashi. The ground was mostly bare and Sasuke crept as silently as he could over dirt and loam, enjoying the challenge. After so long without any stealth practice, it was nice to finally feel like a real ninja again. He heard voices from ahead.

Sasuke was still too far away to see Kakashi and Kurenai, but the wind was blowing towards him and carried their voices. They weren't being exactly _loud_ , but he could still hear everything they said.

 _I'm just going to make sure I'm not bursting in on a private conversation_ , Sasuke told himself, knowing the truth. He was simply curious. Besides, they were jounin. There was no way they'd just talk about anything incredibly secret.

"...becoming a problem, you know?" That was Kurenai's voice, and she sounded like she was _scolding_ Kakashi, albeit in a lighthearted way.

"I'm still a better jounin than you, and I'll prove it by the end of this conversation if you don't let me read in peace." Sasuke knew how irritating Kakashi could be, but that was still quite harsh even by his standards. Kurenai, it seemed, didn't care.

"And yet the supposedly better jounin reads porn, drinks too much and goes home with any pretty woman that shows the slightest interest in him." Now she sounded serious, but Kakashi responded with a more amused tone.

"You're right. I remember a chunin from last year that seduced me so she could read some of the rare genjutsu scrolls in my collection."

"And it was incredibly easy." Kurenai sounded almost proud. Sasuke's face was burning with embarrassment. He hadn't meant to hear _this_ kind of conversation! Now, though, there was no way he'd risk them discovering him. He crouched down behind an old oak, listening intently.

"Almost _too_ easy, wouldn't you say?" And that was Kakashi's insufferably smug 'I beat you and we both know it' tone. "You weren't the first or the last to try that on me. And I only 'get taken advantage of' when I want to."

"I got what I wanted, though. I suppose it was... how do I put this? Mutually beneficial in the end. Which it won't be if you let an enemy ninja pull the same trick on you." Kurenai's voice went from amused to stern, and Sasuke was suddenly reminded very vividly of a cat playing with a mouse.

It sounded like Kakashi took a drink, and then he definitely burped. Quite loudly, even. "Thanks for warning me. I'd not considered that enemy ninja might try to take advantage of me. Without your heads-up, I'd be in serious trouble."

"There's no need to be sarcastic." Kurenai was clearly getting annoyed now, and Sasuke knew from experience how infuriating Kakashi could be when he refused to take anything seriously. That whimsical tone he sometimes used had made Sasuke see red on more than one occasion.

"There's every need to be sarcastic. I've been a jounin since before you graduated the Academy. I value your input when it comes to genjutsu because you specialise in that area. But I'll tell you something that's not really common knowledge, if you like. And you don't even need to seduce me for this bit of information."

A few seconds of silence followed where Sasuke tried to get his thoughts in order. Was this really what Konoha's jounin were like, behind the scenes? Scarlet men and women who slept around, got drunk on duty, and argued with each other?

"...Go on," Kurenai said in a guarded tone.

"I've had a higher live-capture bounty than an unsealed Hyuga for the last six years. I'm worth about 400.000 ryo to the right buyer. And I'm still here. You'd bring in, what, four figures? I'm still alive after all this time. Trust that I know what I'm doing." Sasuke was seriously impressed. Kakashi's boasting was quite aggressive, but it fit the man perfectly. And with that high of a bounty, merely surviving inside Konoha was a near-miracle. That he actually went out on missions was–

"When's the last serious mission you went on?" Kurenai was being rude now, clearly shaken.

"It's been a few months, admittedly. But whatever my shortcomings, at least I noticed when a genin started listening in on us. Remember when I threatened to prove I was the better jounin?" Kakashi still sounded fairly apathetic, but there was an undertone of victory. Sasuke froze. Two seconds later Kurenai stood in front of him.

Her red eyes – almost the exact shade of red as fresh blood – pinned him in place. The beautiful pale face and midnight hair looked almost inhuman as she scrutinised him. He made his face a mask, not sure what she was looking for, but then she smiled and he relaxed a little.

"This conversation was, and will _stay_ , private," she said – no, commanded. He nodded meekly. And then she left.

"Kakashi?" Sasuke asked, definitely not feeling nervous at all after what he'd just heard. He realised he was fiddling with his hands and quickly stuck them behind his back.

Kakashi looked up from his book, his face as vaguely cheerful as always. "What's the matter, Sasuke?"

Rather than admit that he was concerned, and unwilling to discuss the elephant in the metaphorical room, Sasuke just went with his original question. "How come our team isn't as coordinated as Team 8?"

"Well, that's a tough question. At the end of the day, it's down to a lot of different factors. Friendship is a key part of it, of course. Maybe that's all you're missing – the power of friendship."

Sasuke felt his face heat up, and was about to turn and leave, when Kakashi motioned for him to sit down next to him. Sasuke carefully perched on a fallen tree, about ten feet away, and Kakashi sighed.

"I'll tell you a story that might help. It's about a young genin, just like you, who was also on a team that didn't get along well." Kakashi put his book away – Sasuke still didn't know where he kept it – and leant back on the grass, watching the clouds. "Once upon a time, there was a boy called… let's say 'Bakashi'. He was a smart and strong young genin, even becoming the rookie of the year, and all his peers admired him.

"When he was assigned a team, he didn't know how to be nice to them, because everyone else had always accepted his cold aloofness. They loved him anyway, but now he found he didn't know how to be nice, so he hid behind a mask. Of coldness. Not an actual mask, though. That would be silly.

"Anyway, he decided to learn how to be more open and honest. Little did he know, he'd already taken the hardest step – admitting to himself that he had a problem."

Sasuke grunted, now thoroughly annoyed. He didn't know why he'd come to Kakashi in the first place. "I suppose 'Bakashi' was you when you were young, and now that you've grown up into a fine specimen of mental stability and friendliness, I should follow your example?"

"Not at all!" Kakashi said, shaking his head. "'Bakashi' ended up dying in the Chunin Exams with his team-mates, due to a breakdown in team communication. It was tragic. He was on Asuma's first team, you know? And I've always been a bit of a bastard, and never really bothered by it."

"…Right." Sasuke wasn't sure what to think or say now.

"Anyway, the break's almost over. You should get back to training, or Kurenai will be annoyed. One last thing. If you ever get the chance to have a genjutsu specialist seduce you, it's definitely worth taking. But just remember that they almost certainly look _very_ different without all those illusions layered on." And with that last comment, Kakashi dismissed him.

-O-

A/N: That's the last of the edited chapters - everything from here on out will be completely new and different to the original _Spire_. New chapters will be slow for the next few weeks due to my exams, but Ch7 is about half-finished and should be ready in around a week.


	7. Chapter 7

"I'm sorry."

"What?" Naruto blinked. "I came over to apologise to _you!_ "

"But I'm the one that embarrassed myself by losing so easily?" Hinata mumbled, looking about as confused as he felt.

"I was too aggressive. I was in a bad mood and let it out on you, and now Kiba and Shino and Kurenai are angry with me, and I feel bad about it." Oops. He hadn't meant to mention Hinata's team pressuring him to apologise.

She was quiet for a moment. "Look, when we spar, we're training for real fights. The harder we train, the more likely it is we win later. That's why I feel bad for not doing well – I took away your chance to improve. And that's why you shouldn't feel guilty. Besides," she smiled, "it's a chance for me to practice some healing techniques."

Naruto scratched his head, not sure when he'd lost control of the conversation. "Erhm, well, I guess that's good?"

"Yes," Hinata said, her lips quirking up at the corners. "It's the one thing I'm good at and enjoy."

"Nah, you're good at loads of things! You have super cool eyes, and you can do special taijutsu, and you're better at tree-climbing than me." This topic was more familiar ground, and Naruto felt something in his chest loosen a bit as Hinata looked at him gratefully. "Believe it! You're gonna be a great ninja when you put all your talents together."

"Oi!" Kakashi called over from where he was leaning against a boulder, watching the other genin cling to trees. "Enough slacking off, get back to training!"

"He's pretty much an asshole, but he means well. I think, anyway," Naruto told Hinata. "But I really wanna catch up to Sasuke, so I'd better get back to it."

"Sure. And... thanks." Hinata walked over to her own tree and they both made another attempt to reach the canopy.

Naruto soon lost track of how many times he'd tried. It was hard work and he was developing a headache, but each time he managed to climb a little higher, he felt good. He felt _powerful_.

The soft dirt was slowly being churned up by his footprints as he wore a groove into the ground. Naruto was starting to recognise some of the crevices in the bark; he'd clung to them enough times for them to become familiar. He put one foot in front of the other, attaching and releasing in a steady rhythm. Step after step he climbed, powering through the wobbles, until his foot slipped and he fell back down. Landing on his feet was gradually becoming second nature.

And then he'd start again. It was hypnotic. In a way, he thought he could go on forever, until all of a sudden an outstretched hand was blocking his path.

"Naruto? We're stopping for the day. Weren't you paying attention?" Kakashi looked a little concerned, and that was enough to set alarm bells ringing for Naruto.

"I can do a little more," he protested, but his heart wasn't in it. When had it started to get dark?

Naruto started to walk to where the others were sitting around a small campfire, eating bowls of soup, but Kakashi pulled him aside. "I've seen people – good ninja – who used training to forget about traumatic events. It's a better coping mechanism than some others, but in the long run, it will destroy you just as surely as drink or drugs." Naruto caught a whiff of alcohol on Kakashi's breath and shivered a little.

And then Kakashi smiled, his one eye crinkling up. "Just bear it in mind, okay? It's better to talk about it than bottle it up. But if you just want to train some more, and maybe catch up to the others, that's fine. Just make sure it's for the right reasons."

Kakashi's soup was more of a stew, really. Naruto scarfed down three bowls one after the other, lingering over the fourth to just enjoy the taste. It was much better than his own attempts to cook, he had to admit, even if it didn't look like much. Kakashi didn't much care about presentation.

After he'd finished eating, Kiba said, "Man. Three months ago we were still at the Academy. Now we're all genin."

"Some of us are better than others, though," Sakura sniped at him. Kiba stuck his tongue out at her, and Naruto started laughing.

"I used to think being a genin was about training to be a better ninja," Sasuke said. Naruto could just about hear him over the crackling of the flames and the sounds of the forest. "I guess it is, but not like I thought. Like, if I were put in charge of a mission right now, I'd have no idea what to do."

"Who'd put you in charge of a mission?" Naruto asked, trying to get a rise out of his team-mate. Sasuke was looking all introspective and depressed, and a nice argument could shake him loose. "Maybe if the stew had some bad meat in it, and everyone was throwing up and couldn't do anything, and you were the last one standing. Even then, I'd take Akamaru over you."

Akamaru barked in agreement - or at least that was what Naruto assumed the barking meant.

Sasuke interrupted, seeming keen to finish his thought. "But after the last few missions with Kakashi, I thought I'd be less clueless than when I was a new genin. And that after a few more missions, I'd be able to lead some on my own."

"Then you'll train your own squad, and not help out with D-ranks, and read porn all the time, and drink on the job..." Naruto clasped his hands together, theatrically peering at a brighter tomorrow.

"Shut up, Naruto," Sasuke said, but he was struggling to hold back his own laughter.

Hinata filled the break in the conversation. "I'd like it if I had more chances to learn medical things. I'm not very good at genjutsu, but I like healing people. And I really like Kurenai. She's kind, and she cares about us, and puts lots of effort into training us well."

"And she's super hot!" Kiba interrupted. "Like, seriously. How is that even possible?"

Sakura leant in, gesturing for them to come closer. "She's using genjutsu to cheat. Watch." Her face bulged outwards until it resembled the proportions of Kurenai's own head, her hair lengthening and changing colour too. Her skin turned pallid.

Naruto shuddered and looked away, but after a few moments his curiosity overwhelmed his disgust and he watched her again. Shino wordlessly handed Sakura a mirror. She looked into it and tweaked her illusion, warping her face until it was less nightmare-inducing. In fact, Naruto thought, she looked _beautiful,_ with a pale porcelain face offset by deep green eyes.

It was almost enough to make him forget the corpse-like creature she'd been a scant few seconds ago.

"Know what?" Kiba said. "Even if it's not _real_ , Kurenai's still really hot. It's just, I don't know, special makeup or something."

"She's definitely better-looking than Kakashi, that's for sure, and probably a better teacher to boot," Sakura agreed, letting the genjutsu fade away.

Naruto felt defensive of their, he admitted in the privacy of his own mind, objectively mediocre instructor. "Kakashi's not _bad,_ just weird. And some of his training sessions are great, even though Sasuke doesn't always show up."

"I was doing some private training," Sasuke said sternly. Naruto snorted.

Hinata leant over and stage-whispered in Naruto's ear. "He means when he and Ino go and–"

"Hey, I can still hear you!" Sasuke interrupted, flustered now. "It's nothing like that, we just train together. As _friends_."

"Wait, you and Ino train together?" Sakura's voice grew more shrill. "And you didn't tell me?"

"I saw them going to Sasuke's house once–" and Hinata shut up as Sasuke made shushing gestures, but it was too late.

"So," Naruto said over the sound of Sakura arguing with Sasuke, "what are you guys doing here?"

"We had a mission to deliver something, but we're on our way back now," Shino replied. "And you?"

Naruto didn't want to start an argument, so he tried to put aside his dislike of Shino. "We had a mission too, but it went kinda wrong. Turns out the guy we were supposed to frame for smuggling was secretly trading slaves."

Hinata gasped and Kiba looked furious. Shino never showed emotions anyway, so Naruto wasn't too surprised when he just sat there, as placid as ever.

"Yeah. We got him anyway, but he had two Suna-nin as guards. We had to fight them off before we came here."

Kiba looked impressed. "We still haven't seen Kurenai fight. Did Kakashi kick their asses? What does a jounin look like when they're fighting?"

"Kakashi wasn't there. It was just us three," Naruto gestured at the members of Team Seven, "I think if we hadn't surprised them, they could have..."

In that moment it hit him again; the terror, the uncertainty, the shock of narrowly-avoided death. The events played out again in his mind - broken pictures, moments frozen in time. Sakura had a kunai stuck in her head, and it _wouldn't go away_. Blood dripped down onto Kiho's corpse, a red so deep it looked black. Sasuke looked on with the same expression he'd had then, his eyes dark pools in his pale face. There was _so much_ anger, almost enough of it to hide his terror.

"Are you alright?" Hinata asked. Naruto blinked a few times and stood up, his hands trembling at his sides. He needed to be alone.

"Sorry guys. I'm gonna take a walk." He left the circle of firelight, nodding to Sakura and Sasuke.

"–just because you're my teammate doesn't mean you get _dibs_ on me or something, like what the hell?"

"But you could have told me that you and my best friend were sneaking around together!"

Their voices faded away as he slowly made his way into the woods, following the sounds of a stream. He sat on the ground next to a small waterfall, trying to wrest his emotions back under control.

It was calm and peaceful here, and he focused on his breathing. Soon the gasping sobs of air he'd been taking in were replaced with a regular inhale and exhale, and he stood up to go back to the others.

Kakashi walked over to him, handing over Naruto's toothbrush. Naruto knelt next to the stream and brushed his teeth, taking his time. There was something soothing about the mundane task, and he took great pleasure in scraping every surface in his mouth clean. When he was done, Kakashi turned to him and placed a comforting hand on his shoulder. "How are you doing?"

"I don't want to talk about it," Naruto replied.

"Okay." That was all Kakashi said, and Naruto was grateful for it. They walked back to the camp together.

"Time for bed, folks," Kurenai said when she saw them arrive. The other genin were already dressed in their pyjamas, and Naruto grabbed his own and got changed in one of the four empty tents.

"Team Seven sleep in here, Team Eight over there," Kakashi said, gesturing at the two larger tents. "No staying up late to talk. We've got a busy day tomorrow."

Naruto crept into one of the sleeping bags laid out on the floor of the tent, quietly grumbling about having to share a tent. There was something nice about sleeping near other people, but he'd be damned if he admitted it. He was already half asleep when he heard Sakura whisper "Are you two still awake?"

"Yes," he whispered back, and "No," hissed Sasuke.

"I'm scared," she murmured. "Not of anything in particular, but just... scared. Do you know what I mean?"

"Yes," Naruto said. "I know."

Sasuke was silent for a moment. "No."

After a few seconds, though, he breathed out a faint "...yes."

Naruto reached out and pulled Sasuke and Sakura closer to him. He wrapped his arms around them both, ignoring Sasuke's quiet protests, and drifted off to sleep with a teammate on each side, held tight, as though they could disappear at any moment.

The next morning, Naruto woke up first. He crept out from between his teammates, feeling warm and happy. More than that, though, he was also filled with an almost overwhelming urge to _do_ something.

Looking at the two of them, deep in sleep, he knew that – no matter what – he'd protect them both. And to do that, he needed to be stronger.

By the time Sasuke and Sakura left the tent, Naruto had gained another two yards and was more than halfway up the towering pine that had defied him since yesterday. They ate breakfast together with Team Eight again; they were much quieter now that the jounin were around. Naruto found that he missed the easy camaraderie of yesterday.

It had been nice to feel like he belonged.

After eating, Kurenai took her genin and left, going back to Konoha. Naruto waved goodbye before going back to work.

"How long are we staying here?" Sakura asked Kakashi, and Naruto slid back down, wanting to hear the answer.

Kakashi had his book out again now that Kurenai was gone, and Naruto shook his head, exasperated. The man was a complete pervert. "I don't want to have to walk back to Konoha, so we're staying until you three have learned to travel via the trees. This way's quicker in the long run, anyway. But the earliest we're leaving is tomorrow noon because I'll need to go tie up some loose ends this evening."

Sasuke nodded and ran up 'his' tree. Naruto was about to do the same when he realised that Sakura and Kakashi were still talking.

"I can already climb trees. What should I do?" she asked, slightly impatient. Naruto wished he had the same problems as her - it must be nice to run out of things to do, he thought.

Kakashi scratched his chin through his mask. "I was thinking I'd gather some extra food, since I have a bit of time. I'll show you some of the basics of foraging and hunting."

"Can I come?" Naruto asked. "I mean, I can do more chakra control training on my own, but I can only learn special jounin hunting skills from you."

Kakashi considered it for a moment but then shook his head. "Getting you and Sasuke mobile is more important right now. I'll teach you two when you're both that far, whether it's during this mission or the next one."

It made sense, but that didn't mean Naruto had to like it. He made another attempt, the tinge of anger he felt throwing him off a little. He was just a few steps off the ground before his chakra control failed. Once his emotions were disturbed enough to hinder his tree-climbing, the situation would feed on itself, spiralling out of control. He knew it from bitter experience. Naruto sat down, trying to calm himself down with deep breaths.

It was going to be a long morning.

-O-

The sounds of Naruto's frustration faded away behind them as Sakura followed Kakashi deeper into the forest. He strolled over to a tall elm, then up the trunk and stood on a wide branch, waiting for her. She did the same, and they looked around at the other nearby trees.

Kakashi hopped to another tree, lightly touching down on a thick limb. Sakura did the same, sticking herself to the landing spot as soon as her feet touched down so she wouldn't fall. He hopped onwards, and she followed, keeping pace as he sped up. Soon they were hurtling through the forest, leaping from branch to slender branch. It was a heady feeling.

Leaves and twigs whipped past Sakura's head as she hurtled through the forest. Her heart was racing as she tried to keep Kakashi in her sights. All she could make out amongst the foliage was a small speck of silver-grey that stayed tantalisingly out of reach. For a single heart-stopping moment she fumbled a landing, but then she bounced off the side of another tree limb and recovered.

After that, Sakura settled into an almost meditative rhythm. She enjoyed the spectacular view as she travelled. Once Kakashi stopped on a thick branch, she dropped into a crouch next to him, just a little out of breath.

"That was _fun!_ "

Kakashi smiled. "Yeah, it's one of the perks of being a ninja."

Sakura agreed. The speed, the power, and the sheer _freedom_ felt incredible. "How far did we come, anyway?"

"Probably around eight miles in ten minutes. You can see why it's so useful." Kakashi jumped down to the ground, and Sakura followed him by walking down the side of the tree.

"So we're hunting and foraging, right?" Apart from long-faded deer tracks and the occasional sign of a rabbit burrow nearby, Sakura couldn't see anything to eat, but she trusted Kakashi to point anything relevant out to her.

Kakashi nodded. "I want to start by seeing how much you know already. So have a look around, take your time, and tell me what you'd do if you needed supplies."

She peered at the path, trying to spot any fresh tracks. There! Some sort of small hooves had passed by, going towards... Sakura concentrated on her ears for a moment and heard the distant sounds of water splashing over stone... the stream to drink. She could follow the tracks and maybe hunt down the deer. Kakashi nodded as she told him what she'd noticed, firing up her pride, until he punctured it with two sharp words.

"What else?"

Looking more closely at the path didn't bring any new insights, so she looked around the edges. There was a rabbit track running through the brush, and she could rig a wire snare there. A few bushes would hold berries in the autumn, but they were only blooming at the moment. The stream would have some sort of fish, perhaps some freshwater shrimp or crayfish as well.

"What else?"

One of the trees was a birch, and during the spring it could be tapped for fresh tree sap. Sakura had tried some once before, and it was sweet and energy-packed. The bark was useful as tinder in case she needed to start a fire. There were a few plants with edible leaves, but they would need to be washed and cooked first.

"That's good, but I think we're starting to hit the limits of what you know," Kakashi said, "so I'm going to tell you the single most effective way to hunt. Yes, it's good to have good observational skills and know how to recognise spoor, and spot edible plants, but what you should be doing is hunting efficiently. We have a few hours, and so you can afford to look for the lazy way to do things."

Sakura frowned. "What do you mean?"

"There's a path here, but it's not made by humans. Look at the low branches hanging over it – this is an animal track leading to the stream you heard earlier. That means there'll be plenty of game coming through here, although I expect most of that will be at dawn and dusk. The smart way to get food would be to wait here for something to come through and then kill it. You're pretty much guaranteed to have a deer, or maybe a water buffalo, pass by in the next hour."

If she'd had a notebook with her, she'd be writing this down, Sakura thought. Perhaps she should write a reminder to herself to bring writing materials next time? Then she caught herself and laughed.

"So you're not teaching me how to track, or anything? This is just some hunting, and not 'hunting but also teaching you important lessons about ninja techniques'?" Sakura narrowed her eyes at him. She wished she was more surprised, but Kakashi's teaching was always pretty flaky. Sometimes she would walk away with a whole new understanding of something important. And sometimes… sometimes he was like _this_.

He nodded. "You'll learn all that other stuff too at some point, but I'll teach you when Naruto and Sasuke are around. I don't want to go over everything twice. For now, let's just wait in the trees and see if anything comes by."

And that was Kakashi in a nutshell. Talented and lazy and unconcerned with what she thought of him.

Sakura slipped into the crown of a nearby beech, and Kakashi sat on the branch next to her. He stretched and pulled his book out again, but his nose twitched occasionally and she realised he was trying to smell out anything approaching their position.

She settled into a comfortable position – as comfortable as she could be while halfway up a tree, at least – that gave her a good view of the killing ground right below her. The thought of a deer wandering past, unaware of its impending doom, wasn't exciting enough to stop her from zoning out after a few minutes.

Rather than risk falling asleep, Sakura played around with some genjutsu. She had a small pocket mirror with her and spent a solid quarter of an hour messing around with her nose. Kakashi raised an eyebrow at her when she overlaid her real, slightly stubby, nose with a majestic elephant's trunk but she just giggled.

Eventually, she got bored of making her face as outrageous as possible and tried sculpting it into something beautiful. She let the illusion fade for a moment to look at the base material she was working with - a too-wide forehead, pointed chin, angular nose, narrow lips, pudgy cheeks, and a base complexion that was somehow both too pale and too dark. Sakura got to work fixing herself, moving from her skin to her mouth and then her nose.

She was halfway through deciding whether or not she wanted to quirk the end up when she spotted a large wild boar trotting along the path. Its trunk was almost shaped like a teardrop. The thick bands of muscle around the neck and shoulders made it hard to find a mortal blow, but Sakura was already running through other plans for quickly and effectively dispatching it.

Beside her, Kakashi shifted a little but kept reading. His gaze flickered over to her and she nodded. It was reassuring to have someone who could step in if she messed up, but she didn't think it'd be necessary.

She stowed her mirror away, careful to make as little noise as possible, and drew a pair of kunai. As the boar passed under her branch, Sakura hurled the first knife straight at the centre of its back with all her might. The tip of the heavy kunai went through the creature's spine, and it squealed in pain and shock – an almost human sound, Sakura thought detachedly. She dropped down next to it and flipped it onto its back, deftly avoiding the flailing forelegs. Its rear half was paralysed by her first attack, and so she slit its throat without any issues.

A spurt of dark blood rushed out as she sliced open the boar's windpipe and the surrounding arteries. As it bled out, its kicks faded and eventually stopped altogether. Kakashi landed next to her when the beast was still. "Good job."

He carried it back to their temporary camp in silence, hefting it by one leg as he dashed through the treetops. Sakura followed him again, but she found it easier than on the outward journey. She would have enjoyed it more, she thought, if she'd had a chance to wash the thick and meaty gore from her hands.

Once they were a few hundred yards away, Kakashi stopped and used a short length of rope to hang the carcass from a tree, its head pointing downwards. He made a few more cuts around the head and soon there was a steady trickle of blood falling to the forest floor.

"It needs to drain," he said in response to her unspoken question. "We'll come back and finish in a few hours. Let's get cleaned up before we walk into camp, though."

They rinsed the blood off at a nearby stream. She broached a subject she'd been thinking about for a while. "Did you leave a scroll for me just before I graduated the Academy? With training exercises? I thought it might have been the instructors, but it didn't fit. I know a few other people got them too, and I wondered if it was from our jounin teachers."

Her hopes were dashed by Kakashi's answer, which was devoid of any humour. "What scroll?"

Sakura told him about how she'd found a scroll full of training advice and a few techniques. "It was really helpful, actually, as though the person who made it knew what sorts of things I'd be good at." Kakashi didn't say anything until she was finished.

He sighed. "It sounds like someone's taken a special interest in you, for whatever reason. I'm going to tell you something that you shouldn't have to find out like this – not this early and not in this setting. Promise me you'll keep this a secret."

"I promise." Sakura twisted her hands into the hem of her dress. Her mouth was dry.

"Not everyone in Konoha is after the same goals. There are political factions and, since they're made of up ninja, sometimes darker methods at work. If someone ever tries to recruit you for something and tries to use that scroll as leverage, you don't owe them anything. You didn't ask for it and you weren't told of any conditions when you received it." Kakashi frowned for a moment. "And tell me. If they won't back off, I'll make them."

"Should I get rid of it?" Sakura was willing to burn the thing if it was _that_ serious, usefulness be damned.

"That's probably not necessary. Let me look it over, and I can tell you whether it's good advice, but maybe it's just someone trying to make you favourably inclined towards them. Although it's still _very_ strange... are you sure that there wasn't a name or something anywhere?"

"Definitely not." Sakura's voice was firm. "I've double- and triple-checked."

Kakashi nodded. "I assume the scroll is in Konoha?"

"Yeah."

"Well, we'll have to wait until we get back to deal with it. It doesn't change anything in the short-term, but I think I'll have to do a bit of snooping around as to what's going on. But don't worry too much about it – I'll sort it out."

Sakura let out a long, slow breath. Having a jounin take her seriously, and offer to help, relaxed her. "So, since Naruto and Sasuke probably haven't figured out tree-climbing yet, what should I do while I wait for them to catch up?"

"What do you want to do?" Kakashi asked, smiling at her.

"Umm... what do you think is best?"

He rubbed his chin. "Sasuke can throw masses of fire around, and Naruto has his clones. They also both have better taijutsu than you. I'm not going to waste time beating around the bush – you're better off focusing on something else, like genjutsu, than trying to match their strengths directly."

Kakashi formed a handseal, strode over to the stream, and then kept walking until he was standing on the surface of the water. "This is a chakra control exercise, but it's also the first step for a lot of water techniques. Water-based ninjutsu is incredibly versatile, and elemental training is very hard so giving you an early start is a good idea."

"...Right." Nothing practical in a fight, then, but Sakura supposed that at the very least it was an impressive-looking skill. "So how does it work?"

"Anyway, good luck!" And Kakashi took off, heading back to the camp.

Sakura muttered angrily under her breath about unreliable jounin. For a lack of something better to do, though, she considered the problem. It was a chakra-based technique, and Kakashi had used a dog seal to channel it. That made a lot of sense; that handseal was associated with water techniques.

She formed the same seal and channelled a little chakra through it. Forcing the resulting mixture to her feet, she stepped onto the surface of the water – and broke through, soaking herself up to her knees.

After getting out, Sakura took a moment to think. To start with, though, she took her sandals off and set them aside to dry. She also hiked up her skirt so it wouldn't get any damper if she fell in again.

There must have been some trick to what Kakashi had done. She'd rather not make another attempt until she had an idea, so she thought hard about the possible mechanics of walking on water.

It might be related to tree-climbing, for a start. Well, it had to be linked _somehow_ , because both techniques involved channelling chakra via her feet onto a surface she couldn't normally walk on. Perhaps she should try to stabilise the water somehow? She could maybe raise the surface tension, turning the stream into a solid platform.

A quick test and immediate soaking moved that plan to the bottom of her list of ideas. Sakura supposed she couldn't expect to succeed immediately, but it was still annoying.

What about trying to solidify the water in all directions? It would be much more stable, for a start. This time Sakura didn't put her full weight on her foot, instead slowly putting more and more pressure on it as she built up a stronger mass of water under her. Nevertheless, try as she might, she sunk into the dense fluid. It had worked a bit, she could tell, because the water had felt more like jelly and Sakura hadn't gone down quite as fast as before.

Sakura flopped onto the bank of the stream, dispirited but unwilling to give up. If Kakashi had just given her even a little bit of advice, it would be so much easier. She wanted to hit something, to break something. Instead, she let out a calming breath and her anger fled as swiftly as it had come, although her frustration remained.

The problem was that she couldn't make the water firm enough to stand on without staggering amounts of chakra. Maybe she could also push out a stream of chakra to force herself back up? After another five minutes of fruitless searching for alternate ideas, she decided to test it.

It turned out to be impossible for her to stabilise the water and simultaneously push herself up, but it didn't matter. The water stabilisation step was unnecessary, she'd found. Now Sakura proudly stood in the stream, feet a mere inch underwater, and held herself there using only a steady flow of chakra from her soles. She laughed aloud at how easy it was.

And then she took a single step and fell flat on her face. She rose from the stream bed, soaked from head to toe, her face a thundercloud.

"Fuck this!" she screamed, punching and kicking at the water. It wasn't like she could get any _more_ drenched, after all.

Sakura stomped back to the campsite, leaving a trail of muddy footprints behind her as she hugged her sopping wet clothes to herself. By the time she arrived she was shivering from the cold, her teeth clattering together. Kakashi chuckled as he noticed her bedraggled form hurry past him, and she saw red.

She rushed into the tent and dried herself, then pulled on her last set of clean clothes. When she came outside she hunted down Kakashi, who was motivating Naruto and Sasuke by threatening to not leave them any food if he caught them slacking off.

Sakura was _fairly_ sure he was joking, but wouldn't want to risk it if it were her. From the looks of things, the boys agreed. At least they were making steady progress. Sasuke was almost at the top of his tree, and Naruto was about two body-lengths below him. They'd both be ready to leave by tomorrow, she was sure.

But for now, she had other things to occupy herself with. She walked over to Kakashi, a sweet smile plastered on her face to mask the raging anger underneath. "Kakashi, I have a question. Do you deliberately not give good instructions, or are you just clueless?"

"Well," he said, throwing back a smile as fake as hers, "that seems like a loaded question."

"I got drenched and filthy, and there's no way to get clean until we're back in Konoha, because you gave me no help at all," she hissed, rage spilling over.

Kakashi nodded. "Yes, you did. And you learned a valuable lesson from it, or at least I hope you did. I'm willing to bet that next time you try out a new chakra-based technique, you'll be much more careful."

Sakura didn't want to admit he was right, but it did give her pause. "If that's what you wanted to teach me, why not just say that?"

"Teaching isn't the same as telling. Think about it." And Kakashi went back to watching Naruto and Sasuke struggle with tree-climbing.

"...I guess." It had made more of an impact on her, that was for sure. But why would Kakashi avoid telling them anything at all in that case? He never described or explained in any detail. Taijutsu he would correct by nudging them into the right position, and otherwise he tried to get them to learn by doing.

She considered it from another angle. _Assume there's something I could learn just from hearing it. Why wouldn't Kakashi tell me it?_ And then she finally understood.

"I already know most of the things you could teach me just by telling me. That's the whole purpose of the Academy, to cover that stuff, and when we're ready to move on because we've learned it all we become genin." Sakura was triumphant, glad to have puzzled it out. On the other hand, she still wanted to punch Kakashi. He winked at her.

"How about you get a fire started? I'm leaving in an hour, but I'll get the meat ready first."

Sakura had soon stoked the coals into a small campfire and started scavenging more firewood from the forest. There were a lot of dead branches on the forest floor, and it didn't take long to have a sizeable stack of wood ready. Sparks leapt into the sky as she fed the blaze, building it into something she could spitroast some haunches over.

Kakashi piled up thick slices of boar with a separate stack of ribs and legs. "You won't manage to eat anywhere near all of it. Cook the rest and just set it aside, and I'll feed it to my dogs when I get back. Speaking of, I'll leave you guys with a guard so you don't have to keep watch." He summoned a sleek-looking canine with a black coat over silver fur, that dashed off into the undergrowth after a few whispered commands.

"Seeya at noon." And with that, he was gone.

Sakura started preparing the meat when Naruto came over.

"What are you doing?" he asked.

"Have you never cooked meat before?" Sakura asked, incredulous. When he didn't answer, she turned to him. He was refusing to make eye contact with her, paying close attention to own his feet. "Oh. Well, it's like this..."

Naruto was a surprisingly attentive student, and after some quick instruction he was helping her out. "Aren't you worried about catching up to Sasuke?" Sakura asked when he showed no signs of leaving. She did appreciate the help, but occasionally turning a skewer wasn't a task that took two people, and there wasn't anything else left to do.

"I can do it already."

Sakura did a double-take. "Really? But I thought you'd... rub it in, I guess?"

"Nah, there's no need. Besides, it'll piss Sasuke off more if I act like it's no big deal." He shrugged. "He needs to get the stick out of his ass, you know?"

"Naruto, that's a horrible thing to say about your team-mate!" But Sakura couldn't help but giggle. She pulled the first few pieces of meat from the fire, probing them to make sure they were fully cooked. Satisfied, she tore a few shreds of the steaming hot meat off with her teeth, making quiet noises of appreciation at the taste.

"Oi, Sasuke!" Naruto yelled. "The first load of food's ready!"

Sasuke was at the top of his own tree, now, and hopping down from branch to branch. When he got close to the fire, however, he blanched and turned away. "I'm not that hungry."

Sakura was about to go after him when Naruto pulled her back. "I don't know what's up, but I think he wants to be alone."

"That's... surprisingly perceptive of you."

Naruto shrugged. "I'm not a complete moron. Besides, Sasuke's not that complicated."

They ate in silence after that, enjoying the taste of the wild boar. Sasuke came by and grabbed some dry rations, but none of them said anything. Sakura didn't see where he went after that.

Afterwards, Naruto practised his shuriken-throwing and Sakura joined him. She wasn't going to try any more water-related _anything_ until she got back to Konoha and her swimsuit. The hours raced by as they went through the same repetitive motions, time after time.

 _Throw_. The shuriken slammed into the tree-trunk. _Check_. It was stuck at the edge of the target she'd drawn. _Replace_. She pulled it out of the trunk, stepped back to the throwing line and threw again.

Apart from occasional breaks to switch the distance and height of the targets, Sakura spent the rest of the evening in a mindless daze of throwing and fetching. Her arms ached by the end, but she was more impressed by Naruto. He'd somehow gone from always hitting the _tree_ to always hitting the _target_ over the course of a few scant hours of practice.

At last, she put her throwing knives away and sat down with her back against a boulder. She felt tired, both physically and mentally, but the forest looked so peaceful at dusk. The last stray sunbeams lanced between the trees, black as pitch against the blue-grey background of the sky.

"We don't need to set a guard, right?" Naruto asked her. "Kakashi left his dog to take care of that."

All of a sudden the dense undergrowth opposite Sakura looked much more threatening. "Maybe we should take turns keeping watch anyway, just in case?" she asked.

"It's better to rest up for tomorrow," Sasuke said from behind her. She jumped – she hadn't heard him coming at all. Rather than reassure her, he just put her more on edge.

She changed into her pyjamas and lay in her sleeping bag, staring at the canvas roof of the tent. Naruto and Sasuke sprawled out next to - and partly on top of - her, and soon they were drifting off. It was… nice, she supposed, to have that warmth and weight. It was a constant reminder that she wasn't alone.

So were the sounds of the forest, albeit in a much less pleasant way. Every time Sakura's eyes drifted shut, she would hear a faint noise from somewhere outside the tent. She'd look around, as if sheer force of will could let her see through the canvas and to the soft sound she'd subconsciously identified as a threat. She couldn't help herself.

With her nerves soon in tatters, and no closer to falling asleep, she took to fiddling with her hair. Any distraction was better than worrying about what would happen if an enemy ninja found them. Kakashi wasn't there, and his dog couldn't offer the same level of protection. Sakura put a second kunai under her pillow for easy access.

Eventually she gave up and just sat outside on a tree limb, wrapping herself in a blanket. She stared out at the moon-drenched canopy and cursed Kakashi for leaving them in the forest, and herself for not being able to handle it. She fiddled with the knife in her hands.

"Hey," Sasuke called up to her. She almost fumbled the knife but caught it just in time.

"Hey," she replied.

He scrambled up next to her, perching on the same branch. "Can't sleep?"

"Am I that obvious?" she asked, bitterness evident in her voice no matter how much she tried to stop it. "You probably think I'm pathetic."

"Hey, I know we don't always get along. And I know I'm...not that nice. But you're not pathetic."

"But I can't sleep because I'm too scared. I bet _Ino_ doesn't have that issue." Sakura was scowling now.

Sasuke was silent for a moment. "Ino's got her own problems. Besides, she's from Konoha, too. You're on the same side, so you don't need to measure yourself against her. Even then, I think you'd win."

"You'd know, wouldn't you?" She wanted to sound teasing, but couldn't quite stop her anger from leaking. She'd given up Ino's friendship over Sasuke, and now that she'd finally gotten it back it might cost her her teammate too.

"We're just friends," Sasuke said, and he wasn't defensive or angry anymore, just tired.

Sakura swallowed her disappointment. "We're friends too, I hope. And I'd be a pretty shitty friend if I tried to tell you who you can and can't spend time with." It hurt, being the bigger person like that. But Sakura knew she'd do it again in a heartbeat, if only for the grateful look Sasuke shot her.

She wanted to laugh and cry at the same time. She'd finally got some real, positive, emotions out of her childhood crush. And she'd managed it by giving him the go-ahead to spend time with her rival for his affections.

She choked back a hysterical sob - once she started crying she wouldn't be able to stop, she knew.

But then Sasuke wrapped an arm around her and pulled her in for a hug, and everything was alright again. She didn't know how long it lasted, but while he held her she felt every muscle in her body lose the tightness that had plagued her for the past few days.

She felt _safe_.

"Oh, look. There's Naruto," Sasuke said, and she snapped back to attention. Sakura saw Naruto look around outside the tent for a moment before spotting them. He waved and clambered up as well.

"I guess none of us can sleep," Sakura mumbled in way of a greeting.

Naruto looked stern as he faced them, dark bags under his eyes. The moonlight cast shifting shadows over his face, framing him in silver and black by turns. "You can say that, yeah. Guys. I want to tell you something and you need to promise to take it seriously."

There was a gravitas to the moment. Sakura was acutely aware of how loud her breathing was. "Yes."

"Definitely," Sasuke said, and Naruto started his story.

It was about the attack of the nine-tailed demon fox, the Kyuubi. Naruto's version, however, was much more detailed than any other she'd ever heard. She found herself listening with bated breath as he described the awful devastation, the horrific injuries and the sheer scale of the damage. She wanted to cheer as the Hokage approached the monster and turned it back, one man's power and will overcoming a nightmare of savagery and death. But where was the mention of the killing blow? And then Naruto got near the end of the tale, and Sakura's confusion turned to dread.

"...so it had to be sealed instead. Into a baby, ideally. And there just happened to be a fresh orphan around, who became its living prison for the rest of his life." Naruto's whisker marks looked deeper and more savage in the dim half-light. He pulled up his top and Sakura saw a huge circular seal on his stomach. She stared, entranced.

Sasuke reached out and poked it with his finger. "Interesting." And that was all he said.

Naruto nodded and something passed between the two of them. "That's one way of seeing it."

Sakura, however, had more questions, and a desperate need for answers. "Why are you telling us this? Isn't that classified information?"

"I'm telling you because, if it ever looks like the seal is failing, I want both of you to run away. Don't worry about me. It can't hurt me, I think." He sounded like he was trying to convince himself as much as them. Sakura saw her own worries echoed on Naruto's face.

"You _think_ it can't hurt you?" she interrupted. "What if you're wrong?"

Naruto smiled at her, a strange mix of emotions on his face. "If I'm wrong, there still isn't anything you could do to help me, I'm pretty sure. But the seal won't fail. The Fourth was amazing with that stuff. Just in case, though, promise me you'll run."

They both nodded. It felt strangely formal, sat there amongst the endless rustling leaves and beneath the starry sky. Naruto lay down on the branch, and Sakura cradled his head in her lap. She couldn't imagine what it must be like for him. Not just the demon sealed in him, either; his willingness to sacrifice himself for them was terrifying in its selflessness.

Her own head was leaning on Sasuke's shoulder as she stared up into the void. She was somehow falling asleep, despite the regular sounds of a forest creature moving over the ground below. She was jerked into wakefulness, however, when Sasuke shifted an almost imperceptible amount. He stared straight ahead as he spoke in a dull monotone.

"When I was seven years old, my brother killed my entire clan. I was the only survivor. I'm going to hunt him down and kill him."

"...Oh." Naruto's response summed up her own reaction - the quiet horror, the fear, and the pity.

She reached out and hugged Sasuke to her. "I just want to keep all three of us safe," she said, voice thick with emotion.

"Naruto wants to become the Hokage, I want to kill Itachi Uchiha, and you want to stop any of us from dying. I'd say you picked the hardest goal of all." That got made her laugh, at least.

They stayed like that for a while, then went back to the tent. Sakura dozed fitfully until the morning.

When they woke up, none of them talked about the night before. Sakura demonstrated a little tree-hopping, and by the time Kakashi came to take them back to Konoha the other two could almost keep up with her.

On the way home, they stayed close together. The journey was a mere six hours, as opposed to the days they'd spent outward bound.

When the gates came into sight, Sakura was looking forward to a hot bath and a clean set of clothes. After Kakashi dismissed them, though, Ino ran over from where she'd been waiting near the entrance. Behind her, Shikamaru and Choji ambled along, quietly chatting about something or other.

"You guys won't believe what happened on our last mission!" she shouted, her excitement and energy infectious. "Come on, I'll tell you all about it."

"Eh, I'm pretty tired," Sakura said. "Can't it wait?"

Ino shook her head hard enough that her ponytail whipped back and forth. "No, no, this is super important, and I want to be the first to tell you. We brought Tsunade back to Konoha!"

-O-

A/N: Shoutout to Valbino and Fin, who both helped edit this chapter. I'm moving away from the constant POV changes because I realised I'm using them as a crutch. I'm gonna try to stick to two or three per chapter from now on, although it's obviously not a hard and fast rule.

I'd appreciate any feedback on how the changed characterisation (especially of Kakashi) comes across, now that I've worked on it for a while. Do you approve? Do you dislike it? Do you not really mind/notice?


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